Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi on Friday warned protesters about not violating a “sacred proper” following the arrest of former CNN host Don Lemon earlier that morning, threatening that in the event that they do, President Donald Trump and his administration “are coming after you.”
“Make no mistake, below President Trump’s management and this administration, you’ve gotten the appropriate to worship freely and safely,” stated Bondi in a video revealed on X. “And if I haven’t been clear already, in the event you violate that sacred proper, we’re coming after you.”
Lemon was arrested in Los Angeles on federal civil rights costs associated to his protection of a Jan. 18 protest in opposition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in St. Paul, Minnesota, when demonstrators interrupted a Sunday morning service at Cities Church.
Bondi confirmed Friday in an preliminary social media put up that Lemon was arrested at her “course” alongside unbiased journalist Georgia Fort, Black Lives Matter Minnesota co-founder Trahern Jeen Crews and Hennepin County Lawyer’s Workplace staffer Jamael Lydell Lundy.
Bondi described the demonstration, which befell at a church the place protesters alleged one of many pastors was a prime ICE official within the state, as a “coordinated assault.”
Lemon’s costs embody conspiracy and interfering with the First Modification rights of those that had been worshipping on the church.
Evan Agostini/Invision/Related Press
The vocal Trump critic was in Los Angeles making ready to cowl the Grammys on Sunday when he was arrested.
His lawyer, Abbe Lowell, famous in an announcement that Lemon has been a journalist for 30 years and known as the arrest an assault on the First Modification.
Lowell defined additional that Lemon’s “constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no completely different than what he has at all times achieved. The First Modification exists to guard journalists whose function it’s to shine a light-weight on the reality and maintain these in energy accountable.”
The White Home brazenly celebrated the arrest on social media, whereas quite a few journalists and Democratic lawmakers condemned it.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) warned, “Trump’s authoritarian takeover is quickening.”