Federal grand jury indicts independent journalist Georgia Fort and former CNN anchor Don Lemon under FACE Act for covering anti-ICE church protest

On January 30, 2026, federal agents arrested independent journalist Georgia Fort and former CNN anchor Don Lemon in connection with their coverage of an anti-ICE protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. The church's pastor is a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official. A federal grand jury in Minnesota indicted both Fort and Lemon on charges under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act of 1994 — a statute originally enacted to protect physical access to abortion clinics — specifically for "conspiracy against right of religious freedom at place of worship" and related counts. Both journalists were released from federal custody on the day of their indictment and have maintained, on the record and in subsequent statements, that they were on the scene as reporters documenting the protest, not as participants in it.

Fort is a three-time Emmy Award-winning independent journalist based in the Twin Cities; Lemon is a former CNN prime-time anchor now operating as an independent media voice. NPR's coverage on January 31 documents Lemon issuing a statement outside federal court framing the arrests as "a moment for journalists around the world to stand up for each other"; Democracy Now! amplified the rallying framing under the banner "Journalism Is Not a Crime."

The use of the FACE Act to bring federal criminal charges against journalists for newsgathering at a protest is the central structural concern recorded here. The statute's legislative history and text are oriented toward physical obstruction of access to facilities providing reproductive health services; its repurposing to criminalize the documentation of a protest at a place of worship — where the targeted official is a federal immigration officer — represents a substantial expansion of the law's reach into protected expressive activity.

The May 17, 2026 Washington Post follow-up by Geoff Edgers (cited in this entry from the issue's monitoring-intake summary; the article's content could not be fetched on the verification run) reports that, four months after the indictment, Fort describes the prosecution's legal restrictions as having functionally silenced significant portions of her reporting: she cannot interview certain Minnesota community leaders and sources due to constraints arising from the pending case. The chilling effect of a prosecution — independent of whether it ultimately produces a conviction — is itself the mechanism of press retaliation recorded here.

Updates

2026-08-06 — Fort's attorneys filed three motions to dismiss the prosecution [7]

Having pleaded not guilty on February 17, 2026, Fort's attorneys filed three motions seeking dismissal of the case: one arguing her reporting is protected under the First Amendment, one contending prosecutors failed to allege facts constituting a crime, and one claiming the prosecution is "vindictive" and that the government "manipulated the law" to target her because she is a journalist. Co-defendant Don Lemon separately challenged the FACE Act's constitutionality in his own defense.