Former CNN journalist Don Lemon has responded after Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon called him out for covering an anti-ICE protest that occurred inside a church in Minneapolis.
Per PEOPLE, Lemon’s response came after Dhillon stated that the Department of Justice had put him “on notice.”
The protest in question took place at Cities Church on Sunday, and Lemon, who is now an independent journalist, shared footage of it. A service was taking place inside the church when the demonstrators paused it to register their displeasure with a pastor and an ICE agent identified as David Easterwood. The video has since gone viral.
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“This is what the First Amendment is about, the freedom to protest,” Lemon told viewers. “I’m sure people here don’t like it, but protests are not comfortable.”
Following his coverage, Lemon was reportedly accused of either orchestrating or being behind the protest.
“A house of worship is not a public forum for your protest! It is a space protected from exactly such acts by federal criminal and civil laws! Nor does the First Amendment protect your pseudo-journalism of disrupting a prayer service. You are on notice!” Dhillon, 57, shared in a post on X about Lemon’s coverage inside the church.
In a Monday interview on The Benny Johnson Show, Dhillon also said that she wasn’t going to rule out bringing charges against Lemon and the other people involved in the protest.
One of the acts Dhillon spoke about invoking is the FACE Act, which makes it unlawful to cause harm or threaten people who are “lawfully exercising or seeking to exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship,” PEOPLE reported.
The other is the Ku Klux Klan Act, which makes it unlawful for people to prevent someone or a group of people from enjoying “any of the rights, privileges, or immunities, or protection, named in the Constitution.”
“The Klan Act is one of the most important federal civil rights statutes. It’s a law that makes it illegal to terrorize and violate the civil rights of citizens,” Dhillon said. “Whenever people conspire, this, the Klan Act can be used.”
Dhillon continued: “Everyone in the protest community needs to know that the fullest force of the federal government is going to come down and prevent this from happening and put people away for a long time.”
Responding to Dhillon’s comments in a statement to Fox News Digital, Lemon, 59, said: “It’s notable that I’ve been cast as the face of a protest I was covering as a journalist — especially since I wasn’t the only reporter there. That framing is telling.”
“What’s even more telling is the barrage of violent threats, along with homophobic and racist slurs, directed at me online by MAGA supporters and amplified by parts of the right-wing press,” he added.
“If this much time and energy is going to be spent manufacturing outrage, it would be far better used investigating the tragic death of Renee Nicole Good— the very issue that brought people into the streets in the first place, I stand by my reporting.”
