{"id":451387,"date":"2026-02-03T15:12:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T15:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/451387\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T15:12:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T15:12:07","slug":"don-lemon-says-doj-wanted-to-instill-fear-and-embarrass-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/451387\/","title":{"rendered":"Don Lemon Says DOJ Wanted to ‘Instill Fear’ and ‘Embarrass’ Him"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDuring his Monday night appearance on \u201cJimmy Kimmel<\/a> Live!,\u201d Don Lemon<\/a> recalled the moments leading up to his arrest.<\/p>\n

\n\tLemon said he was out in Los Angeles on Thursday night attending pre-Grammys parties before arriving back at his hotel, where he was arrested by federal agents.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI got back to the hotel. I had my swag bag from the [party], and I was walking up to the room,\u201d Lemon recalled. \u201cI pressed the elevator button and all of a sudden, I feel myself being jostled and people trying to grab me and put me in handcuffs. And I said, \u2018What are you doing here?\u2019 They said, \u2018We came to arrest you.\u2019 I said, \u2018Who are you?\u2019 Finally, they identified. I said, \u2018If you are who you are, where\u2019s the warrant?\u2019 They didn\u2019t have the warrant. So, they had to wait for someone outside, an FBI guy to come in, to show me a warrant on a cell phone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEarlier in the interview, Lemon said he previously heard rumors that he might be taken into custody and offered to turn himself in. However, he claims his lawyer never heard back from Attorney General Pam Bondi or Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche about the offer.<\/p>\n

\n\tHost Kimmel called the ordeal a \u201cwaste of resources.\u201d Lemon agreed and said he thought the arrest was designed to send a message.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey want to embarrass you,\u201d he added. \u201cThey want to instill fear. That\u2019s why they did it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFederal agents took Lemon into custody<\/a> in Los Angeles on Jan. 29. Lemon\u2019s arrest came after the Department of Justice sought to charge him with a civil rights violation for disrupting a religious service during a Minnesota ICE Protest. The former CNN host turned independent journalist claimed he was not participating as a protester, but was there as a reporter covering the demonstration, which he broadcast on his live stream.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Friday, a judge released<\/a> Lemon on his own recognizance. Speaking outside the downtown Los Angeles courthouse, Lemon said his arrest would not hamper his work in the press.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI have spent my entire career covering the news. I will not stop now,\u201d he said. \u201cI will not stop ever. Last night, the DOJ sent a team of federal agents to arrest me in the middle of the night for something that I have been doing for the last 30 years, and that is covering the news. The First Amendment of the Constitution protects me and countless other journalists who do what I do. I stand with all of them, and I will not be silenced. I look forward to my day in court.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During his Monday night appearance on \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!,\u201d Don Lemon recalled the moments leading up to his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,81834,75,4592],"class_list":["post-451387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-don-lemon","tag-entertainment","tag-jimmy-kimmel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}