Don Lemon, Georgia Fort arrested over Minnesota church protest

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Welcome to The Logoff: The Trump administration is indicting two journalists for his or her protection of a Minneapolis protest.

What occurred? Don Lemon, a longtime CNN host who was fired from the community in 2023, and Georgia Fort, an unbiased journalist in St. Paul, Minnesota, have been charged with conspiracy to deprive rights and interfering with non secular freedom on Friday, together with a number of protesters.

The costs stem from their protection of a Minneapolis-area protest earlier this month; activists interrupted a church service in St. Paul over a pastor on the church who works for ICE, whereas Lemon and Fort documented the protest.

The indictment, unsealed Friday, which costs 9 whole individuals on the identical two counts, alleges Lemon, Fort, and the opposite defendants “entered the Church in a coordinated takeover-style assault and engaged in acts of oppression, intimidation, threats, interference, and bodily obstruction.”

What’s the context? The Trump administration tried and did not cost Lemon a minimum of twice previous to Friday’s indictment by a grand jury. Shortly after the protest, a federal Justice of the Peace decide refused to signal an arrest warrant for Lemon; when the Trump administration appealed that call, it was additionally rejected by a federal district court docket decide and by a federal appeals court docket panel.

Three activists have been additionally charged final week in reference to the protests; in a single occasion, the White Home digitally manipulated a photograph of Nekima Levy Armstrong to make it seem she was crying when she was arrested.

Why does this matter? The indictment of journalists is disturbing on its face, as are the lengths the Trump administration went to to safe the indictment. Equally alarming is the administration’s obvious giddiness: The White Home touted Lemon’s arrest in an X publish Friday morning, writing “When life offers you lemons... ⛓️” over a black-and-white photograph of Lemon. It additionally referred to the “St. Paul Church Riots” — plural, although it was a single protest.

And with that, it’s time to sign off…

This story made me smile on the finish of a protracted week: Folks raised greater than $8,000 for a faculty crossing guard in Chicago, Joe Sass, after he went viral for serving to a pupil throughout a road flooded with icy slush.

“I like being a helper,” Sass told the Washington Post (it’s a present hyperlink). “And I believe if individuals might consider me as that, then I believe that’s like one of the stunning issues on the planet. I’m only a buddy out right here serving to my neighbors.”