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Don Lemon says federal agents deliberately chose to arrest him publicly — despite his offer to turn himself in — in what he described as an effort to intimidate and embarrass him.
Lemon detailed the arrest during a Monday (February 2) appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, explaining that his attorney contacted federal authorities ahead of time and offered for him to self-report if charges were imminent, a customary legal step. Lemon said that offer went unanswered.
Instead, he said, roughly a dozen law enforcement officers arrested him last week at a Beverly Hills hotel while he was in Los Angeles covering Grammy-week events. “They want to embarrass you,” Lemon told Kimmel. “They want to intimidate you. They want to instill fear."
Lemon recounted being grabbed near the hotel elevator and placed in handcuffs, saying officers initially could not produce a physical warrant when he asked for one. “I said, ‘If you are who you are, then where’s the warrant?’ And they didn’t have a warrant,” Lemon said, adding that an FBI agent later showed him an image of the warrant on a cellphone after escorting him outside.
He said he was held overnight for more than 12 hours and denied the ability to make a phone call or speak with his attorney during that time. “You get to talk to your attorney whenever the court says you can,” Lemon said he was told. He added that neither his husband nor his legal team knew where he was until an FBI agent returned a diamond wedding bracelet to his hotel room, alerting his husband to his detention. "Otherwise, no one would have known where I was," he shared.
The arrest stems from Lemon’s coverage of a January anti-ICE protest that disrupted services at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. Federal prosecutors allege Lemon violated the rights of worshippers and conspired to interfere with religious freedom, charges he has denied.
Lemon has repeatedly said he was present solely to document the event as a journalist. “I went there to chronicle and document and record,” he told Kimmel. “There is a difference between a protester and a journalist."
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