President Donald Trump on Sunday revived the administration’s attacks on independent journalist Don Lemon for his coverage of an anti-ICE protest at a Minnesota church, sharing a story that mischaracterized an appeals court’s decision not to force an arrest warrant.
Trump shared a link on his Truth Social page from the conservative website Just the News, the headline of which read, “Appeals court finds evidence to charge Don Lemon over church protest, but won’t force arrest warrant.”
The story asserted that a Friday decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals in the Eighth Circuit, which was unsealed on Saturday, found probable cause to charge Lemon, his producer and three others with crimes in connection with his coverage of a protest at a St. Paul church, but the court would not grant the Justice Department’s request to overrule a magistrate judge’s decision not to approve arrest warrants.
However, the appeals court’s decision did not include a unanimous finding of probable cause for Lemon or the others. The three-judge panel — Jane Kelly, a Barack Obama appointee, along with two Trump appointees, Steven Grasz and Jonathan Kobes – decided that the court would not force Minnesota’s chief district judge Patrick Schiltz, who himself refused to overrule magistrate judge Douglas Micko’s ruling not to charge the group, to approve arrest warrants.
But only Grasz concluded that there was “clearly” sufficient evidence to charge the five people, writing in a brief concurring opinion that the government hadn’t shown it needed the court’s intervention to pursue the charges. Kelly and Kobes did not individually weigh in.
“The Complaint and Affidavit clearly establish probable cause for all five arrest warrants, and while there is no discretion to refuse to issue an arrest warrant once probable cause for its issuance has been shown … the government has failed to establish that it has no other adequate means of obtaining the requested relief,” Grasz wrote.
This is the second time Trump has amplified a push to charge Lemon on Truth Social after he reposted a call for charges last week. A spokesperson for Lemon did not respond to an immediate request for comment.
Lemon and a film crew followed the protestors inside the church, where they believed one of the pastors was an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official. Lemon commented on the protests and interviewed both the pastor and the demonstrators, conducting himself as a journalist.
DOJ officials, including Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon, have hinted that Lemon could face charges for his appearance at the protest. Lemon, in turn, defended his actions in an Instagram post last week as “an act of journalism.”
After the court initially struck down the government’s bid to charge Lemon, his lawyer, Abbe Lowell, praised the decision as Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Lemon, praised the decision as an affirmation of “the nature of Don’s First Amendment protected work this weekend in Minnesota as a reporter.”
“It was no different than what he has done for more than 30 years, reporting and covering newsworthy events on the ground and engaging in constitutionally protected activity as a journalist,” Lowell said in a statement.
