Don Lemon, the former CNN host, has secured legal representation from a federal prosecutor who resigned from his post amid a dispute with the Trump administration. A court filing on Tuesday revealed that Lemon, who is among nine individuals indicted for their alleged roles in disrupting a church service in Minnesota, has hired Joe Thompson.
Thompson, who previously served as interim U.S. Attorney, stepped down last month from the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office, where he had been leading major fraud investigations. His departure coincides with a broader exodus of prosecutors from the office, reportedly driven by growing frustration with the administration’s immigration enforcement crackdown and the Justice Department’s response to fatal shootings by federal officers in Minneapolis.
Lemon faces federal civil rights charges concerning his coverage of the church protest, which occurred at a church where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official was a pastor. He has previously stated, through another attorney, his intention to plead not guilty, asserting he was not affiliated with the group that disrupted the service and was present solely as an independent journalist.
The indictment, however, reportedly details various actions by the group, including comments made by Lemon during his livestream report on the event.
Lemon is scheduled to be arraigned on Feb. 13 in federal court in St. Paul.
The Trump administration has cited the Minnesota fraud cases, in which most defendants have come from the state’s large Somali community, as justification for its immigration crackdown in the state. Thompson estimated in December that the losses to taxpayers from several fraud cases being prosecuted in Minnesota could total $9 billion.
Thompson recently formed his own law firm with Harry Jacobs, another former federal prosecutor who resigned amid the upheaval in the office. Jacobs had been lead prosecutor in the case of Vance Boelter, who has pleaded not guilty in last year’s assassination of former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, and the nonfatal shootings of a state senator and his wife.
The firm’s website describes them as “battle tested and seasoned” trial lawyers.
Thompson did not immediately reply to messages seeking comment Tuesday.
