Former CBS News reporter Scott MacFarlane reported on Tuesday that Don Lemon’s lawyers are demanding the Justice Department dismiss its case against him.
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The former CNN host, along with other local reporters, has been in an entrenched battle with a Minneapolis prosecutor claiming that journalists reporting on a protest at a church were part of the protest. They all vehemently deny the charges and have produced interviews and videos from that day to back up their legitimacy.
There has been an ongoing concern among the defendants that Justice Department lawyers may have misled the grand jury to secure the indictments against the journalists. Lemon and the other reporters, including targeted investigative reporter Georgia Fort, asked for access to the grand jury transcript to more closely examine what the grand jury was told and by whom.
Last week, the judge ruled that the grand jury transcripts be released to her for review.
Now, Lemon’s lawyers want the case thrown out based on those materials, MacFarlane saw in the court filing.
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Lemon’s attorneys claim that the “government improperly posted defamatory comments & prejudicial photographs of certain defendants on social media,” including social media posts by former Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“A continuation of the X post by the White House reposted commentary by former Attorney General Pam Bondi which stated that federal agents had executed the arrest of Ms. Armstrong ‘at my direction,'” the court filing said. “The post also contained text stating, ‘UPDATE: A second arrest has been made at my direction. Chautyll Louisa Allen has been taken into custody.’ The White House also posted on its X page a photograph of Ms. Allen being arrested. The photograph appears to show Ms. Allen in a room where she is confined with two agents on each side.”
“The Defendants are now on notice that the Government will not hesitate to publicize information about their cases — true or not. This could certainly have an impact on whether witnesses are willing to come forward to testify in this case (acknowledging witnesses’ reluctance to testify when presented with ‘spectacle’ and ‘repercussions’),” the filing continues.
Lemon, along with the others named, was charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act), which prohibits physical obstruction to interfere with people seeking or providing reproductive health services or exercising religious freedom at places of worship. Protesters began shouting during a church service and journalists were there to report on it. After the fact, the Trump administration said that they were protesting along with the other people and thus violated the FACE Act.
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