Politics

Don Lemon defiant after Minnesota church protest arrest

Published

5 months ago

January 31, 2026

Jan. 30, 2026, 7:29 PM EST

Fresh out of federal custody, former BLN anchor Don Lemon vowed Friday not to back off his work as a journalist despite an indictment against him and others over an anti-ICE protest he covered this month at a Minnesota church.

Lemon cited his profession’s protections under the First Amendment — the same one federal prosecutors contend he and his co-defendants violated by infringing on the churchgoers’ freedom of religion.

“There is no more important time than right now, this very moment, for a free and independent media that shines a light on the truth and holds those in power accountable,” Lemon said in his first public remarks since his arrest late Thursday.

“The First Amendment of the Constitution protects that work for me and for countless of other journalists who do what I do. I stand with all of them, and I will not be silenced,” he added, speaking outside a federal courthouse in Los Angeles, where he had just been ordered released pending trial.

Lemon, fellow independent journalist Georgia Fort and two people active in Democratic circles in Minnesota were arrested as part of a broader indictment over the Jan. 18 demonstration against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which Lemon livestreamed while reporting on the event at Cities Church in St. Paul.

Demonstrators say they were there to protest ICE tactics and a pastor of the church, David Easterwoodwho also leads the local field office for ICE. Easterwood was recently listed as a defendant in a casebrought by protesters who alleged immigration agents had violated their First and Fourth Amendment rights.

“I’m just here photographing, I’m not part of the group. … I’m a journalist,” Lemon is heard saying in his video.

The indictment names nine defendants. The prosecution alleges in it that a group of “agitators” gathered to discuss their plans prior to traveling to Cities Church to engage in a “planned takeover-style operation.”

Demonstrators joined in on various chants inside the church including “ICE Out!” and “Stand Up, Fight Back,” according to the indictment, which was signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi, among others.

Prosecutors also allege that one defendant called some congregants “Nazi,” and asked some children, “Do you know your parents are Nazis? They’re going to burn in hell.”

The portions of the indictment involving Lemon largely hang on details from his livestream, particularly that he made a point of telling viewers he wouldn’t say where the protest was going to take place.

Lemon and Fort — in one of the few mentions of her in the indictment — are also accused of obstructing the pastor’s movements when they approached to question him; the document does not specify if this was Easterwood. Prosecutors contend Lemon “stood so close to the pastor that Lemon caused the pastor’s right hand to graze Lemon, who then admonished the pastor, ‘Please don’t push me.’”

Until now, efforts to secure charges against Lemon had stalled in court. A federal magistrate judge previously refusedto approve a criminal complaint against him, saying prosecutors hadn’t shown probable cause — a decision upheld by an appeals panel last week.

Earlier in the week, the Department of Justice had reportedly withdrawn its bid for an arrest warrant, though officials indicated they might pursue charges through other procedures.

Bondi confirmed the arrests in a social media post Friday.

“Early this morning federal agents arrested Don Lemon, Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort, and Jamael Lydell Lundy, in connection with the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota,” Bondi said on X. Fort, Crews and Lundy pleaded not guilty at a hearing Friday in Minnesota and were released.

Fort is vice president of the Minneapolis chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists. She posted a video on Facebook early Friday announcing “agents are at my door,” and said her attorney advised her to go with them.

Crews is the co-founder of Black Lives Matter Minnesota and a former Democratic candidate for the Minnesota House. Lundy is a small-business owner and a current Democratic candidate for the Minnesota Senate.

Lemon is charged with conspiracy to deprive rights and interfering by force with someone’s First Amendment rights. The most serious charge carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.

Prosecutors argued Friday that Lemon poses a “danger to the community” and asked the judge to restrict his travel, a request the judge mostly rejected.

Lemon, wearing a tan suit and appearing visibly displeased during the hearing, did not enter a plea, but his attorneys say he will plead not guilty to all charges. His next hearing is scheduled for Feb. 9 in Minnesota.

“I look forward to my day in court,” Lemon told reporters.

Lemon was in Los Angeles to cover the Grammy Awards when he was taken into custody late Thursday.

His lawyer, Abbe Lowell, called Lemon’s arrest an “unprecedented attack” and accused the DOJ of using it as a distraction from the backlash the Trump administration is facing after the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

Lemon’s arrest marks a major development in a case that has stirred national debate over press freedom and federal power. The case has drawn sharp criticism from advocates and supporters of Lemon.

“Don Lemon has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done,” Lowell said in a statement. “The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable.”

Lemon is still strongly associated with his long-running show at BLN, even though he left the network nearly three years ago. The network said in a statement that his arrest raises concerns about the freedom of press.

“The First Amendment in the United States protects journalists who bear witness to news and events as they unfold, ensuring they can report freely in the public interest, and the DOJ’s attempts to violate those rights is unacceptable,” BLN said.

Several press freedom and advocacy groups condemned the arrests on Friday. The Committee to Protect Journalists saidLemon’s arrest “should alarm all Americans.”

“Instead of prioritizing accountability in the killings of two American citizens, the @realDonaldTrump administration is devoting its resources to arresting journalists,” said Katherine Jacobsen, a spokesperson for the group.

The National Action Network criticized the Trump administration for violating Lemon’s rights under the First Amendment.

“Don has spent the last decade calling out the lies or the destructive policies of President Trump, who no doubt was waiting for the right moment to use his weaponized Justice Department against him,” said Rev. Al Sharpton, the group’s founder.

Jack Pedigo and David Noriega contributed to this report.

Ebony Davis is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW.

Fallon Gallagher is a legal affairs reporter for MS NOW.

Politics

The “Pride Match” that wasn’t

Published

48 minutes ago

June 27, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

SEATTLE — As a lesbian who was born in Egypt, Noha Mahgoub could have chosen to dress for what local organizers branded a “Pride Match” in colors associated with either her sexual orientation or her country of origin. The 43-year-old Democratic legislative aide — one of the top staffers in Washington state government — chose the latter, arriving in a red Egyptian national team jersey, a black hat emblazoned with YALLA and red-white-and-black tricolor facepaint.

“I’ve seen Pride shirts, I’ve seen Pride face paintings,” she observed from a concourse minutes before national anthems began echoing around Lumen Field. “It’s been really great, but I’m seeing a lot more Egypt and Iran and people cheering for their countries and singing their songs.”

Indeed, despite FIFA’s announcement that rainbow flags would be permitted in the stadium, few were visible as the match began. Instead, the stands rippled with the colors of the two Middle Eastern countries on the field, including many of the pre-revolutionary lion-and-sun flags that FIFA has attempted to ban under a stadium code of conduct that prohibits political displays.

Mahgoub had seen Egypt’s national team in person only once before, as a child while the team was angling to qualify for the 1990 World Cup. Since then, Mahgoub and her family relocated to Washington state, where she said the local Egyptian-American community has become enlivened by new arrivals coming to work at Seattle-based tech companies.

“You know how it is, you start calling everybody your cousins — a lot of cousins that I wasn’t related to,” Mahgoub said. “Well, I think a lot of them are here.”

Politics

Why Belgium’s prime minister isn’t cheering on the Red Devils

Published

4 hours ago

June 27, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Ah, Belgium. The country of fries, chocolate, Kevin De Bruyne and, some might say, chronic political division.

Beyond Brussels, a mighty international melting pot, the country is split between Dutch-speaking Flanders, French-speaking Wallonia and a small German-speaking community. Those linguistic divisions are mirrored in its politics: Belgium has separate party systems on either side of the language border, as well as a highly devolved federal structure that gives significant powers to its regions.

Today, Belgian politics is as fragmented as ever. It took 234 days to form a federal government after the June 2024 election (yes, you read that right). The delay was driven largely by the fact that no camp came close to winning a majority, forcing months of negotiations between parties with sharply different ideological and linguistic bases.

Flemish nationalism has also become a growing force, shaped by two right-wing nationalist parties: the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), which wants to transform Belgium into a looser confederal state and ultimately give Flanders far greater autonomy, and the far-right Vlaams Belang, which openly campaigns for Flemish independence.

So, you might think the 2026 World Cup would offer Belgium’s leader a rare opportunity to rally and unify the country behind a shared national symbol, right?

Wrong.

Prime Minister Bart De Wever, who hails from the N-VA party, has expressed almost no public support for the Red Devils, Belgium’s national soccer team.

That contrasts with leaders in nearby countries that also qualified for the World Cup. The leaders of the Netherlands, Germany and France have all publicly backed their squads, whether on social media or through public appearances.

The reason may be simple: De Wever just doesn’t care for the sport.

A Belgian official told Blue Light News: “The prime minister is not a soccer fan, so he doesn’t seek to project that image publicly. To do otherwise would not be authentic.”

Flemish media have indeed reported that the prime minister has little interest in soccer. In a podcast appearance a few years ago, he said the sight of people “going totally crazy in a group in the stands” left him feeling “ice cold.”

But politics is likely part of the story too. De Wever has led the Flemish nationalist N-VA since 2004. Throughout his political career, he has argued that Flanders should have far greater autonomy and that Belgium should evolve into a confederal state. For a politician with that background, overt displays of Belgian national unity probably don’t come naturally, and in fact contradict emphasis on Flemish autonomy.

This is not the first time the N-VA’s relationship with the Red Devils has attracted attention. In 2015, after Belgium reached No. 1 in the FIFA world rankings, Francophone Socialist Party leader Laurette Onkelinx asked the Chamber of Representatives to applaud the team. All parties joined in, except the N-VA.

During Euro 2016, the N-VA had to deny it instructed ministers and MPs to avoid publicly celebrating the Red Devils so as not to appear too Belgian, after rumors circulated in Belgian media.

One of De Wever’s few comments about this year’s World Cup concerned Belgium’s official tournament song. His complaint: It did not contain a single word of Dutch.

“My staff have confirmed to me that not a single word is sung in Dutch. That is, to put it mildly, not elegant,” he said, in keeping with his ideologies of promoting Flanders, when asked about the song during a parliamentary committee hearing.

Sport is often treated as a vehicle for national unity. In New Zealand, Belgium’s opponent in today’s match, elite teams have successfully woven elements of Māori culture into their sporting traditions, most famously through the prematch haka, which has helped create a shared cultural identity that connects Māori and non-Māori New Zealanders.

In Belgium, however, this World Cup has not yet become that kind of unifying project. At least not from the very top.

Politics

World Cup match collides with Florida GOP bash

Published

6 hours ago

June 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

HOLLYWOOD, Florida — Colombia and Portugal’s World Cup match in Miami Gardens won’t be the only major draw pulling crowds to South Florida this weekend: Florida’s Republican grassroots are heading to Hollywood for their “Sunshine State Showdown.”

The GOP’s event at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino is one of the state party’s biggest of the year. The GOP sold more than 800 tickets, with the party’s most devoted volunteers and many donors coming in from all over the state to get revved up for the midterms, gameplan their messaging and hear directly from top candidates.

The shindig will feature speeches from Sens. Rick Scott and Ashley Moody, as well as gubernatorial candidates Rep. Byron Donalds, former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner and Lt. Gov. Jay Collins. It will also include two congressional debates.

Several “Showdown” attendees said they were thrilled about the convergence of their party’s bash with a World Cup match. South Florida has already seen a huge economic boom in recent years, and the Magic City is poised to become even more prominent given Miami is set to be home to Donald Trump’s future presidential library and will host the G20 in December. “Miami is again at the center of the universe,” observed Miami-Dade County GOP Chair Kevin Cooper.

Several prominent Republicans said they see the international event as an opportunity to showcase the state. State Rep. Dean Black of Jacksonville, who also chairs the Republican Party of Florida’s fundraising committee, said he’d enjoyed seeing fans from abroad show appreciation over social media for American culture. “They have fallen in love with the greatness of America,” Black said. “By being exposed to the Republican Party event, they will learn just how that greatness came to be.”

Collins’ team said that while the lieutenant governor wasn’t attending the game, he was “happy the state of Florida is hosting so many fans from across the world experiencing the beauty of our state.”

Former Fox 35 Orlando anchor Ryan Elijah, a GOP candidate for Congress who’s attending the showdown, said he would be checking his phone regularly for World Cup updates.

“What a night for Florida to see the biggest names in Florida politics and World Cup soccer be just miles apart!” he said in a text. “It’s a dream night for tourism numbers and local businesses!”

But the packed weekend also risks turning into a logistical headache. The Hard Rock Hotel is one of the pickup points offering shuttle services to Miami Stadium. It’s less than 9 miles away from the big game.

Angie Wong, Republican executive committeewoman in Miami-Dade, attended Wednesday’s match between Scotland and Brazil. She said her family paid $200 for parking near the stadium and that it took more than an hour just to get out of the parking lot.

“We were lucky — we actually left before the game ended,” she said.

Yet this year’s “Showdown” is a more scaled-back affair than in the recent past. It won’t, for example, feature a dinner like in previous years. But that’s probably good news for any attendees who don’t want to miss the soccer match — or who are just trying to get back home without getting stuck in traffic. And it doesn’t have any major Trump administration officials attending, in comparison to last year, when the event prominently featured White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and now-former deputy chief of staff James Blair, who is currently running Trump’s political operation for the midterms.

Florida’s GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis — who remains highly popular with the state’s grassroots — won’t be speaking at the “Showdown” this weekend and his office didn’t reply to an inquiry about whether he’d attend Saturday night’s game. The governor was in the Miami area during the last couple of days, including hitting the Brazil-Scotland game on Wednesday night and holding a press conference at the former Alligator Alcatraz immigration detention center on Thursday.

Evan Power, chair of the state party, had already arrived at the Hard Rock Hotel on Wednesday night and said he got to watch a Brazilian victory parade happening right outside the restaurant where he was having dinner. He added he hadn’t had any issues getting in and out of the events center and that Republicans sold out their room block, “so I think we were able to get in before the craziness.”

“In our room block, people are happy because they’re not paying the market rate that is out there,” Power said. “Seeing some of the prices — they’re crazy now.”