Don Lemon Arrest Warrant Case: Appeals Court Denies Request
- A federal appellate court on Friday declined to order a lower court judge to sign arrest warrants against five peopel, including former CNN anchor Don Lemon, in connection...
- Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit,which was unsealed Saturday,came about after the Justice Department asked the appellate court to compel the U.S.
- The ruling made public on Saturday did not identify the names of the five defendants for whom the Justice Department is seeking arrest warrants,but multiple sources confirmed to...
A federal appellate court on Friday declined to order a lower court judge to sign arrest warrants against five peopel, including former CNN anchor Don Lemon, in connection with an anti-ICE protest inside a church in st. Paul, Minnesota.One of the three judges said he felt there was probable cause to justify the arrests, according to court filings and sources familiar with the matter.
The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit,which was unsealed Saturday,came about after the Justice Department asked the appellate court to compel the U.S. District court in Minnesota to sign five arrest warrants over civil rights charges alleging the defendants were unlawfully interfering with the churchgoers’ constitutionally-protected freedom to practice religion.
The ruling made public on Saturday did not identify the names of the five defendants for whom the Justice Department is seeking arrest warrants,but multiple sources confirmed to CBS that Lemon is one of them.
A spokesperson for Lemon had no immediate comment on the ruling.
CBS News reported on Thursday that Magistrate Judge Doug Micko had refused to sign an arrest warrant for Lemon, who attended the protest at the church and interviewed the pastor.
Lemon’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said Thursday that the magistrate’s actions “confirm the nature of Don’s First Amendment protected work this weekend in Minnesota as a reporter,” and slammed the Justice Department for what he called “a stunning and troubling effort to silence and punish a journalist for doing his job.”
Three people have so far been charged in connection with the protest on Sunday, when demonstrators entered St. Paul’s Cities Church after discovering that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official appeared to be one of the pastors at the church.
The criminal compliant shows that several defendants were also charged, but their names are redacted after the magistrate declined to sign the arrest warrants over concerns about a lack of probable cause.
Micko also separately declined to approve some of the charges for the three defendants who were arrested, also citing a lack of probable cause.
In court filings to the Eighth Circuit, Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz for the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota said t