Don Lemon has asked a federal judge to dismiss criminal civil-rights charges against him, arguing the indictment violates his First Amendment protections as a journalist.

Lemon's legal team, led by attorney Abbe Lowell, filed the dismissal motion in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, where the case is docketed as United States v. Levy Armstrong, case number 0:26-cr-00025, before Judge Douglas L. Micko. The lawyers assert that the prosecution stems from President Donald Trump's longstanding "animus" toward Lemon and is designed to punish protected reporting rather than criminal conduct, Variety reports.

The charges trace back to an anti-ICE protest — a demonstration against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — inside Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, on January 18. Federal agents arrested Lemon in Los Angeles on January 29 while he was covering the Grammy Awards. A judge ordered him released the next day.

A Minnesota grand jury indicted Lemon and others on charges of conspiracy and interfering with the First Amendment rights of worshippers. The indictment centres on the FACE Act, a federal law that prohibits intimidating or interfering with the constitutional right to freedom of religion. According to the indictment, Lemon entered the church and livestreamed protesters as they disrupted a church service, BBC News reported.

Lemon pleaded not guilty on February 13, 2026, Reuters reported. He was charged alongside journalist Georgia Fort and several others; on February 27, Reuters reported that U.S. authorities had charged 30 additional people in connection with the protest, Reuters reported.

Lemon was fired from CNN in 2023 and has since worked as an independent journalist. His lawyers say the charges relate to his reporting on protests connected to Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota, and they frame the prosecution as an attempt to criminalise newsgathering.

The Trump White House weighed in publicly after Lemon's arrest. Its official X account posted a photo of Lemon with the text "Don Lemon Arrested for Involvement in the St. Paul Church Riots" and a caption reading "When life gives you lemons…" followed by a chains emoji. Lemon's legal team cites the post as evidence of the administration's hostility toward him.

The dismissal motion is now before Judge Micko. A related filing deadline of March 27 has passed, according to the court docket. The case continues.