Skip to playerSkip to main content
  • 8 months ago
Don Lemon said about a dozen federal agents came to his Los Angeles hotel to arrest him last week, even though his attorney had told authorities he would turn himself in to face federal civil rights charges over his coverage of an anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted a service at a Minnesota church.
Transcript
00:08I pressed the elevator button and all of a sudden I feel myself being jostled and people
00:13trying to grab me and put me in handcuffs and I said, what are you doing here? And they
00:17said, we came to arrest you and I said, who are you? And then finally they like identified
00:22themselves and I said, if you are who you are, then where's the warrant? And they didn't
00:25have a warrant. So they had to wait for someone from outside, an FBI guy to come in to show
00:30me a warrant. Maybe a dozen people, which is a waste, Jimmy, of resources because I told
00:36them weeks before, maybe once or twice, that we would, you know, I think my attorney tried
00:41to contact them once, maybe twice. They want to embarrass you. They want to intimidate you.
00:46They want to instill fear. And so that's why they did it that way. They had the handcuffs
00:50on me and my bracelet I had on a bracelet that my husband bought me for a wedding, which
00:55was this diamond bracelet and it kept getting caught. And it was kind of hurting. And I,
01:00they said they'd take it off. And I said, do you mind taking that up to my husband in
01:04room, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And one of the FBI agents said, sure, and took it
01:08up. And that's how my husband found out. Otherwise, no one would have known where I was.
01:13It doesn't likeрок. elmen don't listen to nothing. And the Release Black Man. We got you
01:57So look, I want to thank everybody for their support.
01:59It really, it truly means the world to me.
02:02I have no idea what's going on because obviously I haven't seen anything.
02:06I have spent my entire career covering the news.
02:09I will not stop now.
02:13In fact, there is no more important time than right now, this very moment, for a free and
02:21independent media that shines a light on the truth and holds those in power accountable.
02:26Again, I will not stop now.
02:27I will not stop ever.
02:31Last night, the DOJ sent a team of federal agents to arrest me in the middle of the night
02:35for something that I've been doing for the last 30 years, and that is covering the news.
02:43The First Amendment of the Constitution protects that work for me and for countless of other
02:48journalists who do what I do.
02:51I stand with all of them, and I will not be silenced.
02:56I look forward to my day in court.
02:59Thank you all.
03:00I see a man who does it.

Recommended