Independent Journalists Georgia Fort and Don Lemon Arrested by Feds Along With Three More Activists
Minneapolis, MN — A week after arresting three activists over protesting an ICE director who pastors in a St. Paul church, federal agents made five additional arrests, this time targeting two journalists who covered the protest — Georgia Fort and Don Lemon — and three other participants.
“Do we have a constitution or not?” asked independent journalist Georgia Fort after she was released from federal detention following Friday’s court hearing. As press, “I should be protected under the First Amendment,” she said. “Amplifying the truth, documenting what is happening in our community is not a crime.”
Fort was arrested at her house at 6 a.m. by a swarm of masked federal agents from multiple agencies, including the DEA.
Georgia Fort, an independent journalist and vice president of the Minnesota NABJ chapter, was also arrested by federal agents this morning I was sent this video of agents at her door:
— Phil Lewis (@phillewis.bsky.social) January 30, 2026 at 8:58 AM
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The others arrested by packs of gun-toting agents with covered faces were co-founder of Black Lives Matter Minnesota and Bush Fellow Trahern Crews, Senate candidate Jamael Lundy and Ian Austin, a veteran-activist from Philadelphia.
The new arrests came after the government convened a federal grand jury that indicted 9 people on two felonies, 18 U.S. Code § 241 conspiracy against rights and 18 U.S. Code § 248(a)(2) obstructing freedom of access by force or threat.
Fort, Lundy and Crews had their court hearing on Friday afternoon in the Federal Courthouse in Minneapolis. Prosecutors asked the judge to hold each of the defendants, claiming their crime was violent, and attempted to put a $5,000 bond on Crews despite the fact that Crews was the only one without paid legal representation.
Judge Dulce Foster ordered all three defendants released from custody with no bond. Ian Austin was arrested later in the day and is being held in Sherburne County Jail, which has contracts to house federal inmates and ICE detainees.
“What we saw in the courtroom today was shameful,” said Lundy’s attorney A.L. Brown after the hearing. “The federal government asking for something it had no right to. And making claims that have no factual basis. The claim that this was a crime of violence is foolishness, but that is what the government does, foolishness.”
“Jamael is also on the ballot,” said Lundy’s wife, St. Paul City Councilor Anika Bowie, as she stood next to Brown, “and we do know that this president has a vested interest in suppressing our elections.”
Lundy’s attorney also noted that he had been denied in his attempts to collaborate with federal agents to turn Lundy in. The same thing occurred with last week’s arrests, protesters attempted to turn themselves in were told no, and that government needed to come get them in a show of force.
The grand jury indictment filed late on Thursday evening was a surprise to many after the government made three arrests last week and were denied warrants on six other people by judges who also struck down one of the felony charges, 248(a)(2), saying there wasn’t enough probably cause for arrest.
Last Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Patrick J. Schiltz called the government’s assertion to arrest protesters and media for this case “frivolous” in a letter to the court of appeals.
According to the indictment, the 9 defendants are said to have allegedly taken part in a conspiracy on Jan. 18 to deprive church parishioners of their rights for protesting David Easterwood, who directs the local ICE field office while also serving as a pastor in the Cities Church in Saint Paul. The founder of Cities Church is the current pastor for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at Christ Church DC.
Those indicted are alleged to have “oppressed, threatened, and intimidated the Church’s congregants and pastors by physically occupying most of the main aisle and rows of chairs near the front of the Church, engaging in menacing and threatening behavior, (for some) chanting and yelling loudly at the pastor and congregants, and/or physically obstructing them.”
The protest was quickly dubbed the “Church Riots” on social media by top government officials including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem who promised they’d bring charges in a slanderous media campaign.
After the arrests last week of Nekima Levy Armstrong, Chauntyll Allen, and William Kelly, the White House posted a racist AI-altered image of Levy Armstrong with blackened skin and crying in efforts to reinforce their white supremacist bias. Defense attorney Jordan Kushner said, “the government has initiated this political prosecution to intimidate any political opponents of the Trump regime’s oppressive and harmful actions rather than to protect religious worship or the community.”
According to the newly unsealed indictment, Fort’s felony acts took place as she filmed a conversation between protesters, Don Lemon and a pastor inside the church. The pastor was allegedly bombarded by the group “in an attempt to oppress and intimidate him, and physically obstructed his freedom of movement.” Fort’s second act was interviewing Levy Armstrong after the protest while standing in front of a minivan that had people departing the church.
The Trump administration is sending a “chilling message to our entire industry,” said Fort on Anderson Cooper after her arrest. Fort, a three-time Emmy-award winner and founder of BlckPress, asked other journalists and press to examine how they felt today after hearing that members of the press were arrested for carrying out their job.
“Amplifying the truth, documenting what is happening in our community is not a crime.”
Within minutes of the release of Fort, Lundy and Crews to the lobby of the federal courthouse, dozens of masked federal agents wearing riot gear threatened the crowd with violence and arrests while forcing everyone out of the courthouse and shutting the building down before 3 p.m.
The origin of the federal felony charge of conspiracy against rights, 241, is the KKK Acts from 1870 and the other charge, 248, is also known as the Clinton-era FACE Act. Trump himself was indicted on 241 for his role in the deadly J6 riots in DC but had his 91 felonies dropped after being allowed to run and win the presidency in 2024.
The protest occurred about seven weeks into the federal occupation of Minnesota for the ultra-violent deportation project dubbed Operation Metro Surge — which includes roving bands of masked militarized federal agents detaining, abducting, threatening, beating and even killing residents and community members across the Twin Cities.
None of the defendants in what’s now case number Cr 26-25 LMP/DLM have a next court date set by the government. Read the unsealed indictment below.
Cover image by Niko Georgiades for Unicorn Riot.
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