Don Lemon Arrested by Feds in LA

Former CNN anchor Don Lemon is in federal custody after being arrested Thursday night in Los Angeles, according to multiple sources cited by CBS News. Lemon's attorney, Abbe Lowell, confirmed that agents detained the veteran broadcaster while he was in LA to cover this weekend's Grammy Awards. A grand jury was convened earlier in the day, and both the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations were involved in the operation, CBS' sources say.

Authorities haven't publicly disclosed the specific charges. The AP notes that Lemon's arrest comes after a federal magistrate in Minnesota last week rebuffed prosecutors who wanted to charge him. Lowell frames the case as a press freedom fight, saying that Lemon's reporting in Minneapolis—apparently tied to a Minneapolis-area church protest against federal agents there earlier this month—was consistent with his three decades in journalism.

Lemon has said that he was at the protest at St. Paul's Cities Church last week simply as an independent reporter. "Once the protest started in the church, we did an act of journalism, which was report on it and talk to the people involved, including the pastor, members of the church, and members of the organization," Lemon said in a recent video, per the New York Times. "That's it. That's called journalism."

"The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable," Lowell said in a statement, calling the case "unprecedented" and accusing the Trump Justice Department of diverting attention from other crises and from the actions of federal agents who fatally shot two protesters this month in Minneapolis, per CBS. He added that his client will contest the charges "vigorously and thoroughly." Lemon is set to appear in federal court in LA on Friday. The DOJ hasn't commented.