Former CNN anchor Don Lemon said he wanted to turn himself in when he was arrested last week on federal charges due to a Jan. 18 church protest.
Feb. 3 Former CNN anchor Don Lemon said he wanted to turn himself in when he was arrested last week on federal charges stemming from a Jan. 18 protest in a Minnesota church.
Lemon, 59, appeared on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live on Monday night and said his attorney told federal authorities that he would turn himself in, but the Justice Department never responded.
Instead, he was arrested at a Los Angeles hotel after he covered a Grammy Awards-related event.
«I was walking up to the room, and I pressed the elevator button», Lemon said. «Then, all of a sudden, I feel myself being jostled and people trying to grab me and put me in handcuffs», Lemon told Kimmel.
Lemon said an FBI agent showed him a digital copy of the warrant for his arrest.
«There’s a lot that I cannot say, but what I will say is that I’m not a protester», Lemon told Kimmel.
«I went there to be a journalist», he explained. «I went there to chronicle and document and record what was happening.»
Lemon said he «was following that one group around, and so that’s what I did. I reported on them.»
The group had been planning an anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protest inside the church because they said its pastor, David Easterwood, is affiliated with ICE.
