The stunning arrests of independent journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort signaled that the Trump administration’s crackdown on the press has entered a dangerous new level.
Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed on Friday that federal agents arrested Lemon, Fort and two others in connection with an anti-ICE protest at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota, earlier this month. Lemon faces charges under two federal statutes, conspiracy to deprive rights and violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which in part prevents one from interfering with someone’s First Amendment right of religious freedom.
The White House has reveled in the arrest of Lemon, while members of the media, political leaders and press freedom advocates have decried the arrests as an infringement of Lemon and Fort’s constitutional protections as journalists.
The prosecution of two journalists marks an inflection point in the Trump administration’s campaign to exert federal pressure on the media, one that began almost as soon as Trump took his second oath of office. Even as the president regularly takes questions regular from reporters, he and his administration have pulled on levers of executive and judicial power in an effort to bend media organizations and their individual journalists to their will.
The White House did not respond to an immediate request for comment.
On a mission
It was just a matter of time for Lemon.
He previously defended his appearance at the protest, where he interviewed attendees and filmed the event, as an “act of journalism.”
Still, the DOJ repeatedly tried and failed to get judges to approve an arrest warrant for Lemon. But even as one appellate judge said he saw probable cause for Lemon’s arrest, he still joined two of his fellow judges to deny the department’s request for the court‘s intervention and said the DOJ hadn’t shown why it needed the court’s help.
But as conservatives — and Trump — demanded to see Lemon in federal custody, the department appeared determined to seek an alternative route. A White House deputy chief of staff said Lemon was charged by a federal grand jury, while Bondi said the agents carried out the arrest “at my direction.”
Lemon’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said the journalist will “fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court” and accused the administration of an “unprecedented attack on the First Amendment.”
Defending Lemon
Lowell wasn’t alone in supporting Lemon, with lawmakers, fellow journalists and more voicing their criticism and the chilling effect this would have on reporters.
Former CNN anchor Jim Acosta, who worked with Lemon for years, blasted the arrest as “outrageous“ as he shared Lemon’s attorney’s statement on X.
“The First Amendment is under attack in America!” Acosta said.
“There is zero basis to arrest him and he should be freed immediately,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies wrote on X. “The Trump Justice Department is illegitimate and these extremists will all be held accountable for their crimes against the Constitution.”
His former employer, CNN, also weighed in: “The FBI’s arrest of our former CNN colleague Don Lemon raises profoundly concerning questions about press freedom and the First Amendment.”
The steady escalation
Lemon’s arrest is just the latest example in a long string of assaults on the freedom of the press. Just weeks into his second term, the administration barred the Associated Press from White House events for not using its preferred word phrasing for the Gulf of Mexico, prompting an extended court fight and resulting in the White House’s control over the press pool, which has traditionally been overseen by the White House Correspondents Association.
Months later, news organizations rejected the Defense Department’s new press restrictions, leading to a mass exodus of reporters from the Pentagon.
Trump has also personally sued the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the BBC while in office, and he and other officials have issued threats to outlets such as CBS News and New York magazine.
Some news outlets have fought back, such as the Times in filing its own lawsuit against the Pentagon, while others appear to have acquiesced to government pressure. Paramount settled a defamation case for $16 million with Trump as the company sought FCC approval for its merger with Skydance; ABC-parent Disney settled a defamation case with Trump for $15 million just prior to his taking office, while also briefly pulling late-night host Jimmy Kimmel off the air in September.
In the final months of 2025, Trump launched into a series of vicious attacks against female reporters whose questions and stories he did not like. He told a Bloomberg reporter to be “quiet, piggy” after she asked him about his connections with the late, convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Other attacks included calling one female reporter “stupid,” another “incapable” and a third “ugly, both inside and out.”
Earlier this month, the FBI conducted a sweeping search of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson’s home in connection with a leak investigation into a Pentagon contractor. The agency seized several of Natanson’s devices, including her work-issued laptop, though a court temporarily stopped the government from searching the devices. The Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press said the search was one of “the most invasive investigative steps law enforcement can take.”
Until today’s arrest.
Here is a list of stories at TheWrap that document some of the administration‘s crackdown.
- The FBI’s Search of a Washington Post Reporter’s Home Crosses a Dangerous Line | Analysis — Multiple First Amendment experts spoke to TheWrap’s Michael Calderone to decry the FBI search of Natanson’s home, and one said it looked like an “effort to shield the government from scrutiny through brute force.”
- How Journalists Survived — and Even Thrived — as Trump’s War Against Media Escalated in 2025 | Analysis — TheWrap’s Michael Calderone spoke to top reporters and editors from the Associated Press, the New York Times and CNN to learn more about how journalists navigated the first year of Trump’s media attacks.
- Here Are All the Times Trump Attacked Female Reporters in the Last 30 Days — TheWrap documented 10 instances of Trump’s disparaging remarks on female reporters, including an Oval Office upbraiding of an ABC News reporter during a meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
- Media Goes on Offense as Trump Steps Up His War on Journalism — As Trump’s legal threats against news outlets continued, multiple outlets spoke to TheWrap about how they publicly defend their work and respond to government pressure.
- Trump Says He’s Going to Test ABC Amid Jimmy Kimmel Return: ‘Let’s See How We Do’ — After Disney reinstated late-night host Jimmy Kimmel in September following a brief suspension, Trump threatened to sue the network for the move and highlighted how it already paid him $16 million to settle a case.
