Don Lemon Tells Kimmel About His Arrest

Don Lemon is finally speaking out about his high-profile arrest. Appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Monday, the former CNN anchor said he'd offered through his attorney to surrender to authorities days before federal agents detained him at a Beverly Hills hotel on Friday. Instead, he said, roughly a dozen officers showed up and took him into custody in what he described as a deliberate attempt "to embarrass" and "intimidate" him. The Justice Department didn't respond to a request for comment on his account, per NBC News.

Lemon, now an independent journalist, has been charged in connection with a Jan. 18 protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, where demonstrators disrupted Sunday services to criticize the pastor's work for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Lemon faces charges that include conspiring to interfere with the religious freedom of worshippers. Attorney General Pam Bondi has publicly labeled the protest a "coordinated attack" on the church.

On Kimmel's show, Lemon said he was at his hotel ahead of the Grammys when officers grabbed him and told him he was under arrest, though he said they initially failed to produce a physical warrant. Lemon noted that an FBI agent later showed him an image of one on a phone after he'd been led outside. Calling the operation "a waste ... of resources," Lemon said he'd already hired a lawyer at the time of his arrest, after Trump administration officials had signaled he might be charged.

Lemon described being held more than 12 hours in a federal facility, cut off from phone calls and legal counsel, and unaware that his arrest was dominating news coverage. Prosecutors say he attended a planning session before the church protest and acknowledged the demonstration as a form of civil disobedience. Lemon told Kimmel he was there only to "chronicle and document and record," insisting there's "a difference between a protester and a journalist." A federal magistrate earlier rejected a complaint against him for lack of probable cause, according to a source, but a grand jury has since indicted Lemon and eight others. He plans to plead not guilty at a Monday hearing in Minneapolis.