Don Lemon put 'on notice' for role in church protest in Minnesota

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Harmeet Dhillon on Don Lemon's coverage of protesters who stormed church

Harmeet Dhillon talks with Benny Johnson about the agitators who stormed a Minnesota church, which was covered live by Don Lemon.

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Former CNN host Don Lemon has been put "on notice" by the Justice Department after he joined anti-ICE agitators who stormed a church in St. Paul during a service on Sunday.

Lemon, an independent journalist since being fired by CNN in 2023, has been documenting the Minnesota chaos following the fatal ICE shooting of Renee Nicole Good. He entered the Cities Church along with anti-ICE agitators and began filming, telling viewers that "the freedom to protest" is what the First Amendment is all about.

But Harmeet Dhillon, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, disagrees with Lemon.

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Former CNN host Don Lemon has been put "on notice" by the Justice Department. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

"A house of worship is not a public forum for your protest! It is a space protected from exactly such acts by federal criminal and civil laws! Nor does the First Amendment protect your pseudo journalism of disrupting a prayer service. You are on notice," Dhillon wrote on X.

Dhillon also said she is in touch with Attorney General Pamela Bondi on the issue.

"We are all over it. We are investigating potential criminal violations of federal law," Dhillon wrote.

In an interview with Benny Johnson on Monday, Dhillon said Lemon had a presumption of innocence but Lemon's role as a journalist wasn't necessarily a "shield" for him being a potential party to a crime.

"Don Lemon himself has come out and said he knew exactly what was going to happen inside that facility. He went into the facility, and then he began ‘committing journalism,’ as if that’s sort of a shield from being a part, an embedded part of a criminal conspiracy," Dhillon said. 

"It isn’t and so we’re getting our ducks in a row, putting the facts together, and this is a very serious matter," she continued. "Come next Sunday, nobody should think in the United States that they’re going to be able to get away with this. Everyone in the protest community needs to know that the fullest force of the federal government is going to come down and prevent this from happening and put people away for a long, long time." 

Lemon told Fox News Digital that he stands by his reporting and has faced online threats as a result. 

"It’s notable that I’ve been cast as the face of a protest I was covering as a journalist — especially since I wasn’t the only reporter there. That framing is telling. What’s even more telling is the barrage of violent threats, along with homophobic and racist slurs, directed at me online by MAGA supporters and amplified by parts of the right-wing press," Lemon told Fox News Digital. 

"If this much time and energy is going to be spent manufacturing outrage, it would be far better used investigating the tragic death of Renee Nicole Good— the very issue that brought people into the streets in the first place," Lemon continued. "I stand by my reporting.

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Don Lemon told Fox News Digital that he stands by his reporting.

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