Don Lemon and Georgia Fort were arrested for covering an anti-ICE protest

Don Lemon, the former CNN anchor turned freelance journalist, was arrested Thursday night by federal agents in Los Angeles, who allege he violated federal law while covering an anti-ICE protest in Minnesota.

Notably, Lemon was not the only journalist targeted by law enforcement due to his presence at the Minnesota protest. On Thursday night, local independent journalist Georgia Forte told her followers that the FBI had come to arrest her for participating in the protest. It was live-streamed as customers were demanding she open her door. Prosecutor Pam Bondi JFort’s arrest was confirmed the next dayAlleging that she, Lemon and others were part of a “coordinated attack” on the church. Two other people were also arrested, including Jamal Lundy, a candidate for the Minnesota State Senate, Bondi said.

In a statement posted on Lemon’s social media accounts, journalist Abbey Lowell’s lawyer said that Lemon, a vocal critic of the Trump administration, was covering the Grammy Awards when he was arrested and plans to fight the charges in court. “Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis is no different than what he has always done,” he said.

“Instead of investigating the federal agents who killed protesters in Minnesota, the Trump Department of Justice is devoting its time, attention, and resources to this arrest,” Lowell added.

Two weeks ago, Lemon was with a group of protesters who disrupted a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota, and he was accompanying them as an observer covering their actions. (NPR reports it The church lists acting field director for the St. Paul Immigration and Customs Enforcement office, David Easterwood, as one of its pastors. The federal government instead claimed that he was there not as a journalist, but as a protester, and attempted to obtain an arrest warrant for Limon and the protesters, claiming that they were illegally interfering with churchgoers’ right to worship. The local investigating judge rejected the arrest warrant issued for Limon and several of these protesters, and the Federal Appeals Committee upheld that decision.

According to what was reported by CBS Newsa grand jury was impaneled Thursday to issue the arrest, which allegedly includes the FBI and HSI.