Journalist Don Lemon said Monday that he offered to turn himself in days before he was arrested last week but that federal agents detained him, instead, to “embarrass” him.
Lemon, the headlining guest on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on Monday night, talked through the night he was arrested at a hotel in Beverly Hills, California, that he used as a base during his coverage of the run-up to Sunday’s Grammy Awards.
Lemon, an independent journalist who is a former anchor for CNN, was arrested Friday in Los Angeles County and charged with violating the rights of worshippers at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Jan. 17 following his coverage of protesters who interrupted services.
Lemon told Kimmel that his lawyer reached out to federal authorities with a customary offer have him turn himself in but that he “never heard back from them.” Afterward, Lemon said, about a dozen law enforcement personnel arrested him.
“They want to embarrass you,” he told Kimmel. “They want to intimidate you. They want to instill fear.”
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Lemon’s comments late Monday.
Lemon said he retained a lawyer because officials in the administration of President Donald Trump, who has been critical of the journalist in the past, suggested he might be arrested soon after the church protest.
He said he was at his hotel when he was grabbed and told he would be placed under arrest. He added that arresting officers could not come up with a warrant at his request and that he was only shown an image of a warrant on a cellphone by an FBI agent after he had been escorted outside.
Because, he said, he had offered to turn himself in, Lemon called the arrest “a waste, Jimmy, of resources.”
Lemon said he was placed in a holding room for more than 12 hours, unaware that his arrest had sparked national headlines and wall-to-wall cable news coverage, even after an employee at the federal facility where he was being held told him he had been on CNN nonstop, Lemon said.
He alleged that during that time he was not allowed to make a phone call or have contact with his lawyer or anyone outside.
Protesters entered Cities Church on Jan. 18 to decry what they said was its pastor’s job as an official with Immigration and Customs Enforcement amid sometimes violent and deadly clashes between federal law enforcement personnel and protesters in the Twin Cities region amid an immigration crackdown.
On X, Attorney General Pam Bondi described the protest as a “coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota.”
The criminal complaint alleges that Lemon made a statement acknowledging the protest’s civil disobedience and that he attended a planning meeting before the protest, which took place during Sunday services.
“I went there to chronicle and document and record,” Lemon told Kimmel. “There is a difference between a protester and a journalist.”
A federal magistrate judge had rejected a criminal complaint against Lemon, a source familiar with the matter has told NBC News, and found the Trump administration lacked probable cause. The source said the decision “enraged” Bondi.
A federal grand jury seated in Minnesota on Thursday retuned the indictment against Lemon and eight co-defendants.
Lemon faces charges of conspiracy against the rights of religious freedom at a place of worship and injuring, intimidating and interfering with the exercise of the right of religious freedom at a place of worship.
A lawyer for Lemon has said he plans to plead not guilty. His next court appearance is scheduled for Feb. 9 in Minneapolis.
