Major Media Outlets Claim Don Lemon’s Church Invasion Prosecution Might ‘Muzzle Reporting in the Public Interest’
Major media outlets joined an amicus brief urging a court to dismiss the church invasion charges against former CNN anchor Don Lemon and independent journalist Georgia Fort.
Forty-five media outlets and nonprofit organizations joined the brief, including The Associated Press, Dow Jones (which owns The Wall Street Journal), MS NOW, The New York Times, The NewsGuild, PEN America, ProPublica, Slate, and The Washington Post.
Lemon and Fort stand accused of violating federal civil rights laws for their alleged activity in the invasion of Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Jan. 18, protesting the pastor who works for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Justice Department brought charges against Lemon and Fort under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and the Ku Klux Klan Act, claiming they took part in the agitation that violated congregants’ civil rights. Lemon and Fort have said they were present at the invasion in their capacity as journalists.
The amicus brief, led by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, argues that if Lemon and Fort are convicted, “federal law would be within arm’s reach of prosecutors to muzzle reporting in the public interest.” Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko of the U.S. District of Minnesota added the brief to the court record Monday.
The News Outlets’ Argument
The brief notes that both the FACE Act and the Ku Klux Klan Act require prosecutors to prove that defendants intended to violate Americans’ rights.
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“Journalists intending to cover a story lack the specific intent to deprive individuals of a clearly defined right” under the laws and “therefore cannot be held criminally liable,” the brief notes.
The amicus signatories claim that the prosecution is unprecedented.
“For the first time, the Justice Department has deployed two highly potent civil rights statutes against journalists … who, based on documentary footage, followed a protest into a church and covered the interactions between the parishioners and the protestors by filming and questioning the people present on the scene,” the brief claims.
If the judge allows the case to proceed against Lemon and Fort, the brief argues, “prosecutors would be able to use the statutes’ broad and vague language to target journalists who question witnesses in public spaces – activity that is unquestionably protected under the First Amendment.”
The Prosecution’s Claims Against Lemon and Fort
The superseding indictment, filed in February, alleges that Lemon and Fort joined a conspiracy to violate churchgoers’ civil rights.
Agitators, who said they targeted Cities Church because one of its pastors works for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, allegedly stood up in the middle of a service, refused to leave when asked, blocked members of the congregation from getting to their children, and chanted, “Who shut this down? We shut this down!”
The indictment notes that Lemon livestreamed the planning meeting before the church takeover, but he told his audience he was leaving out key details to avoid revealing the target beforehand. It also claims Lemon said “the whole point” of the activity was “to disrupt” the service. It further accuses Lemon of confronting the church’s pastor, refusing to leave when asked, and obstructing churchgoers as they left the building.
The indictment presents fewer concrete claims about Fort’s alleged involvement in the agitation. It alleges that she confronted the pastor and that she blocked a minivan from leaving the church’s parking lot by conducting an interview in front of it.
First Amendment Defense?
Lemon has filed three motions to dismiss the case, citing the First Amendment, claiming that prosecutors engaged in vindictive prosecution against him, and arguing that the FACE Act’s provision protecting houses of worship is unconstitutional.
When a student newspaper at Loyola Marymount University announced it would honor Lemon and Fort as First Amendment champions, the church’s attorney condemned the move.
“Don Lemon has made a mockery of the First Amendment,” Renee Carlson, general counsel at True North Legal, which represents Cities Church, previously told the Daily Signal. “Calling him a hero for violating others’ constitutionally protected freedom of worship is a farce.”
“It’s like giving ‘Lia’ Thomas a women’s athlete of the year award,” Carlson quipped.
Jonathan Parnell, the church’s pastor, compared the church invasion to an act of terror in a February op-ed for WORLD magazine.
As for Lemon, Parnell wrote, “I told him, plainly, that we had gathered to worship Jesus and that he should leave. He did not leave. He was in on the terror.”
“He continued to accost members of our congregation, eventually moving outdoors, but still on our property,” the pastor added.
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