I don't enjoy defending Don Lemon; I can already hear the shower running.
Lemon has spent years giving conservatives reasons to reach for the remote. His long television career ended in 2023 after controversies followed him from prime time into the morning lineup.
A year later, his planned partnership with Elon Musk's X collapsed after a contentious interview in which Musk looked increasingly irritated with Lemon's questioning. From the Washington Post:
“We had a good conversation,” Lemon wrote in a statement. “Clearly he felt differently. His commitment to a global town square where all questions can be asked and all ideas can be shared seems not to include questions of him from people like me.”
Lemon said that Musk informed him of the cancellation a few hours after he conducted the interview Friday — a conversation that touched on the upcoming presidential election and Musk’s company SpaceX. “Hardcore questions were asked,” Lemon told one skeptical X user on Tuesday.
A corporate account for X confirmed that it decided to end the deal with Lemon. “Like any enterprise, we reserve the right to make decisions about our business partnerships, and after careful consideration, X decided not to enter into a commercial partnership with the show,” the company said. In his own post, Musk criticized Lemon’s show, which he said “was basically just ‘CNN, but on social media,’ which doesn’t work, as evidenced by the fact that CNN is dying.”
Lemon has a remarkable ability to enter a room carrying enough confidence for everyone in it.
None of that proves a federal crime.
Lemon now faces two federal civil rights charges from the Jan. 18 anti-ICE protest that shut down a worship service at Cities Church in St. Paul. Prosecutors say roughly 40 people participated in a coordinated takeover and that Lemon physically obstructed parishioners trying to leave.
The charges include conspiracy against the right of religious freedom and interference with religious worship.
The government isn't inventing a right out of thin air. Federal law prohibits using force, threats, or physical obstruction to intentionally interfere with someone exercising religious freedom at a place of worship.
Journalists don't receive immunity from generally applicable criminal laws simply because they're carrying a camera.
Here comes the part where I reluctantly reach for the soap.
Lemon's lawyer filed motions Friday seeking dismissal and arguing that he was covering the protest, not joining it. They say prosecutors haven't shown that his interviews, livestreaming, or presence inside the church turned him into a conspirator. From ABC News:
Lemon's lawyers argue that statements made by President Trump and current and former members of the Justice Department make clear it was a “vindictive prosecution," and decried the manner in which the investigation after Lemon’s arrest took place.
He was charged with two counts of federal civil rights violations including conspiracy against rights of religious freedom and had pleaded not guilty.
Officials say Lemon and other protesters occupied the church and Lemon "physically obstructed" parishioners as they tried to leave.
"Against this background of literally years of the President’s direct attacks, Mr. Lemon landed in President Trump’s crosshairs again for reporting on a story that the administration wanted to go away: the immigration surge in Minnesota,” according to the filing. At the same time, senior Justice Department officials expressed direct hostility to Mr. Lemon’s status as a journalist.”
The filing cites comments from former Attorney General Pam Bondi, then-deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division.
“One need not look further than the statements and actions of the President and senior leadership in the Department of Justice to see that this case is an attempt to punish Mr. Lemon for exercising his First Amendment rights as a journalist to provide truthful coverage of actions by this administration,” according to the filing. "The vindictive motivations of this prosecution were perfectly summed up by Dhillon’s vow to 'pursue this to the ends of the earth' and the completely unprecedented nature of the Attorney General—fighting to maintain her job—flying out to a district to personally manage a prosecution."
They also accuse the government of vindictive prosecution, pointing to statements from President Donald Trump and Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon, who vowed to pursue the case "to the ends of the earth."
The procedural history gives Lemon more than rhetoric to work with. U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko initially refused to approve an arrest warrant for Lemon after finding the government hadn't shown probable cause.
Prosecutors later obtained a grand jury indictment.
A federal judge also rejected a government request for information about Lemon's YouTube subscribers.
There's more ugliness nearby; lawyers for co-defendant Georgia Fort revealed that an investigator claimed Fort had been chanting with protesters. The Justice Department later conceded she hadn't.
Fort's case isn't Lemon's, but errors inside the same investigation won't exactly make a judge more comfortable.
I still believe people who storm a church and stop Christians from worshipping should face consequences when the law supports them. Worshippers have constitutional rights, too.
Lemon's press status can't excuse physical obstruction or participation in a conspiracy if prosecutors can prove either one.
But dislike isn't evidence; arrogance isn't evidence; conspiracy isn't evidence; and being obnoxious isn't a federal felony.
I began reading Lemon's motion expecting to conclude that another prominent figure on the left was preparing to slither away from accountability.
Now I'm not so sure.
If prosecutors can't separate Lemon the journalist from Lemon the participant with actual evidence, a judge may throw these charges out.
And if that happens, conservatives should care more about getting the Constitution right than getting Don Lemon.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I believe the hot water is ready.
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