A federal judge released Don Lemon on his own recognizance after his indictment on two criminal charges related to a protest earlier this month at a church in St. Paul, Minn.
Prosecutors sought and obtained charges against Lemon and fellow reporter Georgia Fort for conspiracy against rights and an alleged violation of the FACE Act, a statute designed to protect access to abortion clinics and religious spaces.
In a livestream recorded earlier this afternoon, Michael Popok and I anticipated that the prosecutors would seek these charges and noted that the White House had claimed a grand jury had returned an indictment.
The 14-page indictment charges nine defendants, at least two of whom are journalists. Two federal judges initially rejected the charges against Lemon and Fort as members of the press who were covering the protest.
Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz, a George W. Bush appointee and former law clerk for Antonin Scalia, found “no evidence” that either engaged in criminal behavior.
Some quick observations about the indictment.
The Trump Justice Department’s political leadership signed the document, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, and U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen.
No line prosecutor from the District of Minnesota, whose career professionals have been forced to resign after refusing directives of the political leadership, has signed the document.
It is highly unusual for an attorney general to sign an indictment.
During his livestream, Lemon said that he wouldn’t tell viewers “what's going on" before heading to the “operation.”
The indictment quotes Lemon’s comments to cast him as one of the “co-conspirators,” rather than a journalist maintaining the confidence of his sources.
The indictment is practically silent on Fort’s actions, other than interviewing one of the organizers of the protest.
A federal magistrate judge rejected the government’s extraordinary requests to force Lemon to post a $100,000 bond and restrict his travel to New York and Minneapolis.
A hearing reportedly has been scheduled in Minneapolis Federal Court for Mon., Feb. 9.
Read the indictment here.
In the video at the top of this newsletter, Popok and I accurately predicted the charges against Lemon and provided a background about their history. Subsequent events and revelations bore out the analysis.
