New Don Lemon court filing alleges federal officer lied to the judge

Ex-CNN anchor Don Lemon speaks to the press at federal court after an appearance following his arrest for involvement in a protest at a church in Minnesota, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., January 30, 2026. REUTERS/Jill Connelly

A new court filing from ex-CNN host Don Lemon was filed Wednesday, alleging that a Department of Homeland Security officer lied under oath in a statement to the judge in his case.

Lemon is included with several other journalists charged by the Department of Justice, which claims that Lemon and other reporters were protesting when they were filming at a Minnesota church where one of the pastors was coordinating with immigration agents.

National security expert Marcy Wheeler noted that this is the second time the Justice Department has asked Judge Douglas Minko to accept a complaint from an ICE agent who watched the video of the church broadcast and testified to what was in it.

According to Lemon's filing, the agent made false claims about the journalists joining in the chanting from protesters.

"That sworn allegation about Mr. Lemon was false," the filing states. "The government did not produce the draft complaint affidavit until July 17, 2026. At the July 24 hearing, the government explained that it submitted the affidavit to the Court in late January, but the Court did not sign it. The government then 'took Chief Judge Schiltz's advice' and obtained a grand jury indictment on January 29, 2026. Thus, only two days before securing the indictment, the government submitted a complaint affidavit falsely alleging that Mr. Lemon and the other journalists joined in the chanting. The timing strongly suggests that the government presented the same false account of the journalists' conduct to the grand jury."

On Friday, in a rare move, Judge Minko ordered that the Justice Department turn over all testimony and evidence presented to the grand jury at the time. Their specific request is to find whether this sworn statement and any others were used to secure a grand jury indictment.

The proceedings for a grand jury are typically kept secret, but in recent events, judges have allowed that information to be released to the defense in trial courts. In a recent Chicago case, the Justice Department was found to have misled the grand jurors and even dismissed jurors that they felt wouldn't give them the indictment they sought. That case involved six political leaders and activists protesting outside of an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois. The charges have been dropped and the accused have asked for a special counsel to investigate the incident.

Judge Minko said that he wanted to examine the information himself first. However, Matthew Ebert, who represents freelance journalist Georga Fort, said that the government has made false claims about his client already, including in sworn affidavits, Minneapolis Public Radio reported last week.

“The presumption of regularity has collapsed,” Ebert said.

Justice Department prosecutor Neville Hedley told the judge that no false information in earlier documents made it into the indictment. That doesn't indicate whether the information was revealed to the grand jury to obtain the indictment, however.

“These were not material falsehoods," Hedley said. “This was a mistake, this was a miscommunication.”

The affidavit signed by DHS-ICE Special Agent Timothy Gerber reads, "Broadcast video obtained from Cities church also shows ARMSTRONG, ALLEN, LEMON, RICHARDSON, KELLY, FORT, LUNDY, CREWS chanting with agitators and obstructing parishioners' path of travel."

Hedley didn't indicate what was "miscommunicated" in the claim.

Lemon and his attorneys have alleged that the case against him and the journalists is "weak."

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