Don Lemon details LA arrest with Jimmy Kimmel
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Former CNN host Don Lemon shed light on how his arrest in the Minnesota church raid came about during an interview with ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel on Monday.
Lemon began by explaining that his attorney, Abbe Lowell, had reached out to the Justice Department before his arrest to discuss his client’s surrender, that senior Justice Department officials had spoken publicly about seeking charges against him, but Lowell had “never heard back.”
He then offered a timeline of the events that led to his arrest late Thursday night, how he attended pre-Grammy events and was not met by federal agents until he returned to his hotel in Los Angeles.
“I I push the elevator button and then all of a sudden I feel like I’m being pushed and people are trying to grab me and handcuff me,” Lemon said. “And I’m like, ‘What are you doing here?’ I said. They said, ‘We came to arrest you.’ ‘Who are you?’ I said. And then they finally identify.”
DON LEMON LA WAS RELEASED FROM CUSTODY AFTER APPEARING IN COURT
Former CNN host Don Lemon appeared in Los Angeles on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” He recalled that he was arrested while appearing on his show. On Monday, February 2, 2026. (Screenshot/ABC)
The former CNN star later said he wanted to see a search warrant, which the agents who caught him didn’t have, so they should “wait” for an outside FBI agent to bring a copy of the warrant to his cell phone.
“There should have been maybe a dozen people, which is a waste of resources, Jimmy,” Lemon told Kimmel. “Because I told them weeks ago, maybe once or twice… that I could just walk in and they didn’t need to be like that, the people that were working there that day and all these people didn’t need to follow me.”
“This is more than a waste of resources,” Kimmel reacted.
“You are right about it being more than just a waste of resources,” Lemon responded. “They want it. They want to embarrass you. They want to intimidate you. They want to instill fear, and that’s why they did it that way.”
THE LONG HISTORY OF DON LEMON’S ICE-FIGHTING DISCOURSE
Lemon was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit disenfranchisement and violating the FACE Act for participating in an anti-ICE protest that disrupted services at a Minnesota church on Friday.
Lemon, St. Paul during Sunday services last month. It went viral after it was live-streamed of left-wing agitators attacking St. Paul’s Cities Church. Lemon claimed that he was there as a journalist, not a protester. But in the indictment, the Justice Department accuses him of coordinating with the protest organizers before arriving at the church.
Don Lemon, St. He went viral when he livestreamed the anti-ICE protest at St. Paul’s Cities Church. (Don Lemon/YouTube)
“I’ve spent my entire career following the news. I’m not going to stop now,” Lemon told reporters outside the courthouse on Friday. “There is no time more important than now, no time more important than now, for a free and independent media that sheds light on the facts and holds those responsible accountable. And I will not stop now. I will never stop.
“Last night, the Department of Justice sent a team of federal agents to arrest me in the middle of the night for something I’ve been doing for the last 30 years, which is reporting the news. The First Amendment to the Constitution protects this job for 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.”
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Don Lemon speaks to the media after a hearing at the Edward R. Roybal Federal Courthouse in Los Angeles on January 30, 2026. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)
A federal magistrate judge had previously rejected the Justice Department’s initial attempt to bring charges against Lemon. The Justice Department then requested an indictment from the Minnesota grand jury.
Before his arrest, Lemon dared the Trump administration to make him the “next Jimmy Kimmel.”
Kimmel, a fierce Trump critic, was briefly suspended by ABC last year after his comments about the alleged killer of Charlie Kirk drew the attention of the Federal Communications Commission. Like Kimmel, Lemon has become a liberal folk hero for his fight against the Trump administration.
Lemon’s next hearing is scheduled for February 9 in Minneapolis.
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