Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

Don Lemon, Jimmy Kimmel Fumble Basic Facts About Judicial System

[Screenshot/ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live!]

Former CNN host Don Lemon and late comedian Jimmy Kimmel did not once acknowledge that a grand jury in Minnesota found probable cause to bring charges against Lemon and other co-defendants.

Lemon is being federally charged with conspiracy against rights under the Ku Klux Klan act and violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act for disrupting a church service with anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protesters in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Jan. 18. Both Lemon and Kimmel omitted key details about the grand jury’s findings and implied that the Department of Justice (DOJ) selectively found a group of biased individuals who were “willing” to bring charges against Lemon.

“And so then the DOJ goes around and tries to find and correct me if I have it is wrong, some judges to charge you and the judges say, ‘no, we’re not going to do that’ … And then they find a grand jury. And how does do you know? Are you familiar with how that happens? Like how do they find this group of people who are willing to bring charges against you?” Kimmel said. 

“I don’t know. I’m not that astute with it, but at least don’t know the process that well because I’m not an attorney,” Lemon said. “But, you know, I assume that they, you know, they figure out who the folks are and they send it to them and then they write up the indictment as to what they are, you know, what they want charged and then they give it to them. But you can write whatever you want to an indictment, as I’ve been doing some research, you can say whatever you want. And for, you know, even if you lie about it, prosecutors can pretty much say what they want with impunity, with impunity, and they don’t face any sort of consequences.” 

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Lemon and Kimmel did not mention that the grand jury evidently found probable cause based on the evidence presented and that many federal indictments are brought through this process. After Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko declined to approve an arrest warrant against Lemon, the DOJ appealed to U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz, who suggested that they seek an indictment by a grand jury after declining to reverse Micko’s decision.

Following his court appearance on Friday, Lemon vowed to continue his journalistic career and “hold those in power accountable.” He has maintained that he simply committed an act of journalism by live-streaming himself entering Cities Church with the protesters, though the indictment against Lemon alleges that he knew about the protesters’ plans ahead of time.

The indictment also alleges that Lemon and other defendants “oppressed, threatened, and intimidated” the pastor and congregants of the church by “physically occupying” the main aisle and rows of chairs near the front of the church. They also allegedly engaged in “menacing and threatening behavior” by chanting and yelling at the congregants loudly and by “physically obstructing” them from exiting the church.

A livestream filmed by Lemon showed him entering the building while protesters shouted, “Justice for Renee Good,” who had been fatally shot by an ICE agent on Jan. 7 after she hit him with her vehicle. A group of individuals organized the protest to demonstrate against the pastor who serves as an ICE officer.

Abbe Lowell, the attorney representing Lemon, called the arrest an “unprecedented attack” on the First Amendment and an attempt by the administration to distract the public from their own problems.