Don Lemon warns Trump will 'retrofit' laws to prosecute him after judge rejects charges

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Don Lemon warns Trump will 'retrofit' laws to prosecute him after judge rejects charges

Lemon tells Scripps News he expects Trump administration to keep trying different legal approaches against him

Hanna Panreck Fox News

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January 25, 2026 4:09pm EST

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Don Lemon says the Trump admin will go around judges to prosecute him

Former CNN host Don Lemon said the Trump administration would go around judges and "retrofit" a law to prosecute him over his coverage of anti-ICE agitators disrupting a church service in St. Paul.

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Former CNN host Don Lemon said during an interview on Saturday with Scripps News that the Trump administration would go around a judge or "retrofit" a law to prosecute him after he followed agitators into a St. Paul, Minnesota church earlier this month.

"I think it's not over, because it doesn't matter if there’s no law to fit, they will try to fit or retrofit something or go around a judge and just do it themselves. And it doesn’t matter and everything that they say pertains to protesters. I was not a protester. It’s very clear about that. If you look at all the evidence, I’m not a protester. And so I think Alisyn — not that I think, I know — I was the biggest name. And so if they get a Don Lemon, woohoo, that’s a victory, and also I’m the one who put the information out," he told former CNN host Alisyn Camerota, who now works for Scripps News, in an interview.

Lemon followed and spoke to demonstrators who disrupted a church service in a video he posted to his YouTube channel.

Don Lemon speaks onstage during The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation New York Dinner benefitting LIFEBEAT at The Rainbow Room on May 08, 2025, in New York City. President Donald Trump following his speech at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (Cindy Ord/Getty Images for The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation; Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

DON LEMON PUT ‘ON NOTICE’ BY DOJ FOR ROLE IN COVERING PROTEST THAT STORMED CHURCH

A federal magistrate judge rejected the Justice Department’s attempt to bring charges against Lemon on Thursday.

"I’m not naive. I think they’re probably going to try again and again as they did with Tish James and Comey and everyone. If one doesn’t work, then they try something else and that fails, and they try something else, and then they just don’t give up because they, you know, they want to save face, but I don’t know what’s next," Lemon told his former colleague in the Scripps News interview.

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WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE DOJ THREATS AGAINST DON LEMON AFTER HE FOLLOWED ANTI-ICE PROTESTERS IN ST. PAUL CHURCH

Lemon said that he needed to be in it for the long haul, as well as "keep calm and carry on."

Lemon said after the DOJ called him out that he was just covering the protest and that it was an act of journalism.

The agitators went to disrupt the service at St. Paul's Cities Church because they believed a pastor at the church had collaborated with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

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Minnesota church protesters committed a ‘federal violation,’ says Minnesota pastor

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"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," Lemon told Fox News Digital in a statement earlier this month. "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."

"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," Lemon continued. "I stand by my reporting."

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Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.

Hanna Panreck is an associate editor at Fox News.

Don Lemon warns Trump will 'retrofit' laws to prosecute him after judge rejects charges