Frequently fired journalist Don Lemon arrogantly boasted that he “will not be silenced” and whined about the Trump administration after he pleaded not guilty Friday for his role in storming a Minneapolis church with anti-ICE protesters.
Lemon, who was sensationally axed from CNN in 2023 after 17 years at the lefty network, is accused of depriving the constitutional rights of parishioners at the Cities Church in St. Paul when he joined dozens of agitators who interrupted a Jan. 18 service after hearing that the pastor worked for the immigration agency.
Lemon, 59, grandstanded outside the Minnesota courthouse following the brief arraignment, where he bashed the Trump administration and vowed to fight what he called “baseless charges.”
“The process is the punishment with [the Trump administration],” he ballyhooed.
“Like all of you here in Minnesota, the great people of Minnesota, I will not back down, I will not be intimidated, I will fight these baseless charges, I will not be silenced,” Lemon continued.
The flailing reporter was flanked by roughly two dozen protesters who chanted “protect free speech” and waved profanity-laden anti-ICE signs.
Nekima Levy Armstrong, one of the alleged “ringleaders” of the Cities Church protest, also used the moment to martyrize herself following her Friday arraignment.
“We will continue to fight these unjust charges until they are dismissed. All power to the people,” Armstrong crowed.
The mob descended on the church because a pastor there, David Eastwood, is the acting field office director in St. Paul for Enforcement and Removal Operations at ICE.
Lemon was arrested on Jan. 30 while he was covering the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.
The disgraced anchor has maintained that he was simply “chronicling” the church demonstration as a reporter.
Lemon was one of nine people arrested in connection with the protest.
Georgia Fort, an award-winning independent journalist, livestreamed her arrest.
Black Lives Matter Minnesota leaders Trahern Jeen Crews and Chauntyll Louisa Allen, Hennepin County Attorney’s Office employee Jamael Lyndell Lundy, and activist William Kelly were all arrested.
Jerome Richardson, a 21-year-old senior at Temple University who was at the protest providing “logistical support” to Lemon, was also cuffed.
The accused face federal charges under the 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.
The FACE Act prohibits interference or intimidation of “any person by force, threat of force, or physical obstruction exercising or seeking to exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship.”
Lemon faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.