The Astonishing Arrests of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort

In an interview, Fort described a challenge in her work documenting news in the Twin Cities: “Every independent journalist is kind of every person for themselves.” Two days later, officers came to her door.

In the past twenty-four hours, federal officers arrested two journalists on charges that they had broken the law while covering an anti-immigration protest at a Minnesota church service: Don Lemon, a former CNN anchor and the host of The Don Lemon Show on YouTube, and Georgia Fort, a reporter from Minnesota who has, since 2020, run a company called BLK Press. Both of them operate as independent video correspondents; both are Black. “You cannot be neutral about the dismantling of our democracy and still expect to be protected by it,” Fort told CJR days before her arrest. “If the Constitution fails to protect US citizens, it will fail to protect the media, the free press. It’s not like there is a reality where constitutional rights don’t exist for American citizens but they continue to exist for the press,” she said. “That’s not how this is going to go.” 

Lawyers for Lemon and Fort both vowed to “vigorously” defend their clients. Fort is being represented by Leita Walker, a Minnesota-based attorney at Ballard Spahr LLP, who specializes in First Amendment law. “Fort was present at the demonstration solely in a journalistic capacity, documenting an event of significant public interest and concern,” Walker said in a statement. “The free speech and free press guarantees of the First Amendment fully protect such newsgathering and reporting activities, and Fort’s arrest is a transparent and unconstitutional attempt by our federal government to intimidate journalists and chill their protected speech. She will be vigorously defending herself against these charges.”