Ex-CNN host Don Lemon pleads not guilty in Minnesota church protest case

Former CNN host Don Lemon has pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from his coverage of a protest last month at a church over federal immigration raids in Minnesota.

Lemon, 59, was charged with conspiracy to deprive rights and interfering with religious freedoms by allegedly obstructing someone's First Amendment rights by force.

The arrest came after he went into the Cities Church in St Paul on 18 January with protesters who said one of its pastors was an immigration enforcement official.

He livestreamed the protest in an incident that resulted in charges for eight others as well.

Lemon did not speak as he entered the courtroom on Friday in St Paul, Minnesota, where two dozen protestors were gathered to support him, chanting "[Attorney General] Pam Bondi has got to go", according to the Associated Press.

Four co-defendants who were there with Lemon also pleaded not guilty.

Lemon has defended his decision to enter the church, saying he was simply carrying out his duty as an independent journalist covering a protest.

"I have spent my entire career covering the news. I will not stop now," he said soon after he was arrested.

During Friday's hearing, one of Lemon's lawyers, Abbe Lowell, expressed concerns to the judge that investigators had taken Lemon's cellphone when they arrested him in Los Angeles late last month, according to US media.

Lemon and eight other co-defendants, including another journalist, have been charged with conspiracy against religious freedom at a place of worship and injuring, intimidating, and interfering with the exercise of the right of religious freedom at a place of worship.

In the 18 January incident, protestors interrupted a service the church by chanting "ICE out" and "Justice for Renee Good," the mother of three who was fatally shot by a US Immigration and Customers Enforcement (ICE) officer last month in Minneapolis. Lemon has said he was there as a journalist and not affiliated with the church protestors.

Footage showed a chaotic scene unfolding inside the church, which belongs to the Southern Baptist Convention, as protesters and members of the congregation shout at each other.

Federal agents killed a second protestor, intensive care nurse Alex Pretti, in Minneapolis two weeks later. Both Pretti and Good were killed as they were protesting against the Trump administration's immigration enforcement efforts in Minnesota, an operation that has since ended.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote in a social media post after Lemon's arrest that "Trump will not tolerate the intimidation and harassment of Christians in their sacred places of worship".

A longstanding Trump critic, Lemon was fired from CNN in April 2023 after 17 years with the company. The morning show host had apologised for on-air comments that Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, then 51, was past her prime.