Trump ARRESTS Don Lemon In MASSIVE ASSAULT On First Amendment

What this episode is about

Former CNN journalist Don Lemon has been arrested for participating in a protest at a church in Minnesota, alongside independent journalist Georgia Fort, raising concerns about First Amendment rights. This incident coincides with the Trump administration's release of millions of Epstein files and Trump's announcement of a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, amidst other significant news developments.

Key takeaways

• When journalists become the news, First Amendment rights face a storm, not a drizzle.
• Protesters enter churches to protest, journalists arrested for coverage: Is freedom of speech on life support?
• In a world where church protests happen, arresting journalists feels like a headline stolen from dystopian fiction.
• Freedom of the press is a double-edged sword: wielded against dissenters but rarely for their own protection.
• Remember when the MAGA crowd claimed to uphold free speech? Now, they’re arresting journalists for it!

Who speaks in this episode?

• Dan (Guest) · 11 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: Don Lemon, Trump Administration, Georgia Fort
2. 3:00 – 6:00: Don Lemon, Georgia Fort, Elon Musk
3. 6:00 – 9:00: Don Lemon, Georgia Fort, Cook Unity
4. 9:00 – 12:00: Kate Blanch
5. 12:00 – 15:00: Elon Musk, Sean Bannon, Don Lemon, Kate Blanch
6. 15:00 – 17:46: Trump Administration, Mara Lago

Notable quotes from "Trump ARRESTS Don Lemon In MASSIVE ASSAULT On First Amendment"

• All right, Dan, we got a flood of breaking news this morning. Former CNN journalist Don Lemon has been arrested for entering a church with protesters in Minnesota. Georgia Fort, another independent journalist and the vice.

  about Don Lemon · at 0:00

• Sketchy and that's why a judge refused to allow this to happen last week and then a appeals court judge denied the Trump administration's emotion to try to force that judge to issue the arrest warrant.

  about Trump Administration · at 2:43

• Yeah. So, dark, dark stuff. here's video of independent Minnesota journalist Georgia Fort being arrested, with those same charges as Don Lemon.

  about Georgia Fort · at 4:32

• Sort of pro bono attorney access to these individuals, but it's not guaranteed. Pod Save America is brought to you by Cook Unity. I have been using Cook Unity forever, for years, long before they ever sponsored this podcast.

  about Cook Unity · at 8:49

• Here is Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch talking about this latest trunch. I can assure that we complied with the statute. We complied with the act. And there is no that we…

  about Kate Blanch · at 9:49

• Thing I already saw was email traffic between Jeffrey Epste and Elon Musk where Elon apparently asked like when would be a good time to visit the island and Epstein says I'll…

  about Elon Musk · at 13:16

• Kyle Cheney, I think at Politico, reported that. And we and folks should know like Steve Bannon reportedly was working on some sort of like maybe you call it a documentary but…

  about Sean Bannon · at 14:06

• Know, it's in these documents. Then there's an email from September 28th, 2012 that says, quote, What does J, I assume Jeffrey Epste think of going to Mara Lago after Christmas…

  about Mara Lago · at 15:13

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Don Lemon — Person · Referenced journalist; arrest subject · 8 mentions · first at 0:01
  A major breaking-news focus: the episode discusses his reported arrest while covering/embedded with protesters entering a church in Minnesota and frames it as a First Amendment issue.
• Georgia Fort — Person · Referenced journalist; arrest subject · 4 mentions · first at 0:06
  Discussed alongside Don Lemon as another journalist reportedly arrested by federal agents; her arrest video is played and used to illustrate intimidation/chilling effects on press freedom.
• Elon Musk — Person · Referenced public figure in Epstein-file allegations · 3 mentions · first at 3:36
  Mentioned in connection with purported emails in the Epstein document dump and as part of a broader critique about free-speech absolutism and political alignment.
• Sean Bannon — Person · Referenced political figure in Epstein-file allegations · 2 mentions · first at 13:57
  Raised as another figure allegedly connected to Epstein via texts and a reported PR/documentary effort; used to highlight broader networks around Epstein.
• Kate Blanch — Person · Referenced government official; speaker in clip · 2 mentions · first at 9:49
  Appears via a recorded statement as Deputy Attorney General addressing the Epstein-file release and asserting compliance/transparency; hosts question credibility and completeness.

Companies & orgs

• Trump Administration — Company · Political entity · 3 mentions · first at 0:14
  Central to the discussion of recent political actions and controversies, including the release of Epstein files and legal actions against journalists.

Places & events

• Mara Lago — Place · Setting · 1 mention · first at 15:21
  Mentioned in the context of Jeffrey Epstein's potential visit, raising questions about Donald Trump's association with Epstein.

Sponsors

• Cook Unity — Product · Sponsor · 1 mention · first at 8:53
  Promoted as a sponsor of the podcast, offering chef-designed meals delivered to customers.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 All right, Dan, we got a flood of breaking news this morning. Former CNN journalist Don Lemon has been arrested for entering a church with protesters in Minnesota. Georgia Fort, another independent journalist and the vice president of the Minnesota National Association of Black Journalists, was also arrested by federal agents this morning. Uh on top of that, the Trump administration has dumped out millions of new Epstein files. And then uh Trump said he's suing the IRS for10 billion. So,

0:24 and we also have a new Fed share. We got a new Fed share. Great. So, a little thing. Okay, we're going to try to get through all of this. So, uh, here's the incident that apparently got Don Lemon arrested. Let's watch.

0:36 What do you think of this? I mean, this is unacceptable. It's shameful. It's shameful to to interrupt a public gathering of Christians in worship. So,

0:46 but there were folks, that's what I have to take care of my flock. Listen, we live in a there's a constitution in the first amendment to freedom of speech and freedom to assemble and protest.

0:56 We're here to worship. We're here to worship Jesus because that's the hope of these cities. That's the hope of the world is Jesus Christ.

1:02 I want to be very respectful. Please don't push me though. We're we're here. We're here to worship Jesus. That's why we're here. Okay. That's why we're here. That's what we're about.

1:11 Don't you think Jesus would be understanding? And we're we're about these folks.

1:15 We're about spreading the love of Jesus in. But did you try to talk to them as a as a Christian?

1:18 No one is willing to talk. Okay. I I have to take care of my church and my family. So I ask that you actually would also leave this building. You don't want us to

1:26 unless you're here to worship. Unless you're here to worship. I'm always worship. I'm a Christian.

1:29 We're here to Well, we're here to worship. We're here to worship. Okay. Thank you very much. I appreciate

1:34 Okay, Dan. So, I just want to stipulate that I think um uh entering a church to protest is a very bad idea. No one should do that. Um that interview is just weird and tense, but like the idea that you would arrest a journalist for covering the protest seems insane to me and like an obvious first amendment violation. But I I don't know. What have you been thinking watching this? Yeah, I mean if you watch all of the coverage, Don Lemon is embedded with these protesters. He goes in with them. He says on the video that is I guess evidence in this case that um that he is not part of the protest. He's there to cover the protest. Here he is interviewing the people being protested, not just he's not participating in the protest. And as of right now, we don't know exactly what the reason for Don Lemon's arrest is related to this. They have not unsealed the indictment. Um the only reason we know there was even an

2:26 indictment was that the White House political director tweeted out that there was an indictment.

2:30 Yes. Which is not something I mean I know we're well past uh the independent department of justice here, but uh that's not something the White House political director should ever know. Um but yeah, it seems very uh sketchy and that's why a judge refused to uh allow this to happen uh last week and then a appeals court judge denied the Trump administration's emotion to try to force that judge to issue the arrest warrant.

2:57 It's clear that the the Trump administration wants this to be a huge issue in story. I mean Pam Bondi was tweeting about how these uh individuals, four journalists were arrested at her direction. She also released a a video of it as well. So they want coverage of this. They want the conversation about Minnesota to be about uh you know the protesters, not you know what the ICE agents are doing to people. But you know it's also just like look hypocrisy doesn't matter anymore I guess. But it's gling that the MAGA position is that you arrest journalists who uh cover a protest inside a church but you pardon everyone who violently storms the capital on January 6. You know it's like okay what are we doing here? or your entire thing has been about like during the campaign and what got all Elon Musk and all these people to support you was this idea that you were gonna be a first amendment absolutist.

3:45 Yeah, remember that? Remember those days? Now they arrest you for writing opeds and they try to deport you and you know,

3:51 God help us. Al also Dan for all the change uh for all the talk of like a change in Trump's tone that may have existed for you know 24 48 hours this morning he called Alex Prey quote uh an agitator and perhaps an insurrectionist. Uh he's referring to this video of Freddy kicking uh an ICE vehicle and busting the tail light. And then he said uh in response that the ICE officer was quote calm and cool which again we know that's not true because Alex Freddy's rib was broken in the altercation that followed that incident. So, you know, it seems like Trump, uh, saw that video and is now back to attacking the protesters themselves, even Alex Prey,

4:27 attacking the victim who was killed by agents working at his behest. Yeah. So, uh, dark, dark stuff. Um, here's video of independent Minnesota journalist Georgia Fort being arrested, uh, with those same charges as Don Lemon.

4:41 Yes. Okay. Okay. Well, this is really scary. There's kids in the house. You guys have not been really friendly in the community. And to me, this seems a little Can I finish, sir? This seem Can I finish? Can I finish?

5:11 Get your Get your phone. This seems a little bit um aggressive to have all these cars in our culde-sac. Two, three agents and now I saw the one disappear to the back. So to me, this is a little aggressive to just serve a warrant. Slide the warrant. Let me see the warrant.

5:37 So, you know, first of all, like just imagine how terrifying that is. And I imagine you're you're home, you're asleep, your kids are upstairs, and all of a sudden there's a bunch of federal agents pounding at your door and there's all these cars outside. Like clearly clearly this woman poses no threat to these individuals. You don't need a bunch of squad cars and a bunch of agents. Like it's designed to scare her. But also Dan, like these arrests of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, they're not happening in a vacuum, right? The FBI searched the home of a Washington Post reporter and they seized her phone and laptop a few weeks ago. of the Pentagon tried to get the Pentagon press corps to sign a document that essentially said anything they reported had to be pre-approved by, you know, Pete Hegath and his goons. So there there's just this like ongoing massive assault on the First Amendment by, as you said earlier,

6:23 the president who ran on being a free speech absolutist. Just a couple things about this one, what is really, I think, telling is the v the fact that we have a video of this exchange. And the reason we have a video of this exchange is because the only way to hold this administration accountable for anything that these agents are doing is to capture it on video. So an ICE agent shows up at your house and someone has to film the exchange in case they burst down the door at any moment they assault someone, you just don't know because we know that they will lie about things caught on video. So the things that aren't caught on video is fair game that anything could happen. And then also it is notable that these are independent journalists here in Don Lemon and Georgia Fort that that those people are most at risk and Don Lemon I'm sure has more resources. He's famous. He was at CNN for a very long

7:15 time. But there are a lot of people out there who are content creators journal independent journalists who are out there reporting and they do not have the benefit of a huge multinational corporation or first amendment lawyers on speed dial to help them. They're now going, they see this and they're going to have to make decisions every single day about what is what what story is worth the risk. What reporting that you do will end up with not just you being sued by a bunch, you know, in a defamation suit from the president of United States trying to bankrupt you because you had a bad Iowa poll or whatever else, but will end up with Homeland Security agents masked showing up at your door in the dark to arrest you and take you to jail. and now you have a legal case that you have to fund yourself. Uh, and so I think like this is there is a incredibly chilling effect to this level of government censorship

8:09 that I think will be very impactful in the media environment we're in where there are so so much of the information we're getting from these protesters from independent journalists.

8:17 That I think that's such an important point because some people might be watching that and think, look, she's going to get off, right? This is clearly a First Amendment violation. There's no way a judge is going to throw this out. Maybe, but the but the process is the punishment, right? the the fear, the anxiety, the time you spend, the unbelievable resource suck, right? Like you're going up against the federal government. They have unlimited lawyers and time and money to go after you and try to convict you of a crime if they want to and you are on your own. And hopefully, you know, like FIRE or some great organization will provide some sort of pro bono attorney access to these individuals, but it's not guaranteed. Pod Save America is brought to you by Cook Unity. I have been using Cook Unity forever, for years, long before they ever sponsored this podcast.

9:00 It is fantastic. Uh most of my meals are from Cook Unity. They deliver chef designed meals that balance real flavor, nutrition, and convenience with no cooking or planning required. They also let you choose what works for you with collections like protein forward, better for sleep, mood boosting, and fiber maxing. Plus, it's awesome knowing their roster of all-star chefs include Food Network alums, James Beard Award winners, and acclaimed restaurant tours who balance bold flavors and nutrition and small batch meals delivered fresh.

9:25 not frozen. Taste, comfort, and craftsmanship in every bite from the award-winning chefs behind Cookunity. Go to cookunity.com/crooked or use codec crooked to get 50% off your first order. That's 50% off your first order at cookunity.com/crooked or use the code crooked. So, also this morning, I mean, there's a there's a new massive document dump of files related to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. Apparently, it's 3 million pages long. Um, here is Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch uh talking about this latest trunch. I can assure that we complied with the statute. We complied with the act. And there is no um that we did not protect President Trump. We didn't protect or not protect anybody. I mean, I think that that we that there's a a hunger or a thirst for information that I do not think will be satisfied by the review of these documents. Um and and there's it's not there's nothing I can

10:17 do about that. But President Trump of all the people in Washington DC and around this country that have said for years the same consistent message about Jeffrey Epstein is President Trump. Um and so there's not been a change of course or anything. And certainly his direction to the American people and the Department of Just sorry his direction to the Department of Justice was to be as transparent, release the files, be as transparent as we can and that's exactly what we did.

10:46 Dan, first question for you. Did they comply with the statute as far as you know?

10:49 Not sure. And Roana, who was the co-author of the statute, has some real questions about this. They there are they found six million documents that were potentially responsive or six million pages worth of documents that were potentially responsive to the law. They're releasing 3 million of those. They uses several exceptions including attorney crime privilege, few other ones um in there to to justify it. But it's, you know, I think there will be some potentially some court action to determine whether they left out files.

11:18 And the fr the matter, the truth of the matter is, we know this, we've known this for a long time, but this has been, it could not have been more evident over the last few weeks, is you can't trust a single word these people said.

11:28 No, not one. Right. like the idea like your worst fear is that they're like going through and finding the documents that are bad for them and putting them in their pocket and destroying them or um doctoring them would have seemed it shouldn't have seemed crazy but it would have seemed crazy to say that a few weeks ago but when they the way they have lied about Renee Good, Alex Prey and everything else happening in Minneapolis is proof that you can trust nothing they say.

11:53 Yeah, that's right. I mean like certainly they didn't comply with uh the time frame for the release of all of these documents. That said, like on a human level, like I understand how hard it is to review, you know, and redact like six million documents, right? Like there there's just like a human capacity challenge here. Although again, you know, Blanch goes up there, Trump's former personal attorney and says no one has been more consistent in his language about, you know, Jeffrey Epstein than Donald Trump's like, what the are you talking about, man? Like this guy used to denounce Epstein and say he was Bill Clinton's buddy and say this was a huge deal and he'd release all the files and then he told us to shut up and get over it when everyone realized that Donald Trump was the closest person to Jeffrey and Epstein maybe living.

12:34 He directed his Department of Justice to not release the files. He lobbyed Congress to keep them from passing a law not to release files. So much so that the speaker of the house recessed the Congress early twice to avoid a vote on it. and then with then punished uh publicly and threatened primary challenges against the Republicans who've signed the discharge petition that forced the votes to be the vote to happen that were forced the release of the files. So the ID he did everything in his power and took on a tremendous amount of political water and pain to prevent these files from coming out.

13:09 Yeah, it is uh it is absurd. So we're all kind of racing to look through this stuff. I mean we're recording this at 10:30 a.m. uh Pacific time. Um, one thing I already saw was email traffic between Jeffrey Epste and Elon Musk where Elon apparently asked like when would be a good time to visit the island and Epstein says I'll send the helicopter for you. And this again was in 2013 which is long after Jeffrey Epstein was charged in Florida. So I I guess I didn't really realize how deep the relationship between Elon Musk and Jeffrey Epstein apparently is, but my god.

13:40 Yeah, I mean I I was surprised with that too. Um, so maybe when Elon Musk told uh announcer of the world that Trump was in the Epstein files, he knew what he was talking about. I guess yeah, first that was news to me. I'm al I've also read reports, although I have not seen the documents yet, that there is a bevy of text between

13:57 Steve Bannon. Yes. And Jeffrey Abs, including some uh trashing Trump. So I I'm excited I'm excited to dig in and read those and see what they say.

14:06 Kyle Cheney, I think at Politico, reported that. And we and folks should know like Steve Bannon reportedly was working on some sort of like maybe you call it a documentary but really more of like a PR rehabilitation exercise with Jeffrey Epstein. Like they were they seemingly were very very close. Epstein uh according to other documents that have come out had suggested that he might fund Bannon's effort to create these like vast right-wing networks all over the world. So there's a lot of connective tissue there between Bannon and Jeffrey Epstein that I think really has not been explored. I I would like to see it explored personally.

14:39 Yeah, me too. Here's my question for you, Tommy. Yes. Are the Epstein files now the distraction, not the thing we're distracting from? Are they releasing the Epstein files to distract from Minneapolis?

14:48 Oh, man. Are we distracting from the Don Lemon arrest? Is the Don Lemon arrest distracting from the Epstein files, which are distracting from what's happening in Minnesota?

14:56 We got like 5D chest of distractions. I don't even know. Yeah, there's so much. Oh, there's one other one I wanted to mention, Dan, which is there's um again there's like a bunch of very lurid and completely unconfirmed allegations of sexual misconduct by Donald Trump himself. Like I'm I'm very wary of all that, but you know, it's in these documents. Then there's an email from uh September 28th, 2012 that says, quote, "What does J, I assume Jeffrey Epste think of going to Mara Lago after Christmas instead of his island?" So again, 2012 is pretty late for Donald Trump to be welcoming uh Jeffrey Epstein at his island given that, you know, he was prosecuted what in the late 90s in Florida.

15:32 Yeah. And this is long after Trump's professed timeline of when he stopped speaking. Now you can visit Mara Lago and not hang out with Trump. It is a club of sorts, I guess. But

15:41 not if you're banned. What's that? Not if you're banned by the owner. That's true. Yes. So it does raise questions about the banned narrative. Um, so another another uh little thread for reporters to pull on in the coming days here.

15:54 Yeah, that that's what's interesting about these documents. I mean, look, there may not be like giant smoking guns in any of these dumps, but um it's a ton of additional information for really good journalists to pull on and learn more. Um, finally, Dan, Trump says he's going to sue the IRS for $10 billion. This is over the leak of his tax return. Do we just assume this is going to be one of those situations where Donald Trump is able to then settle with himself for some massive, you know, payout?

16:18 That is that is a great concern that he will that it will be his personal attorney who will be making decisions about whether the Department of Justice should settle this case and give him a bunch of taxpayer dollars.

16:31 I just it's so crazy that this happens routinely. Yeah, it is incredibly it is it just it is so corrupt that it's almost hard to imagine. Um, and he there's almost nothing to stop him from doing it.

16:44 Yeah. All right. Well, we're gonna continue going through uh all of his information and we'll do more of these videos if we learn more. Thank you for watching this episode of POS Save America on YouTube. Please subscribe to POSE America on YouTube. We are a small progressive independent media company. We are doing our best to grow and do more and do more coverage and and dig deeper into what the Trump administration is doing and keep you guys uh informed. You know, we've done some great coverage. You know, Love It was on the ground in Minnesota. Alex Wagner did an incredible episode on the ground in Minnesota. Um, when you subscribe to Pot of America on YouTube or you become a Friends of the Pod subscriber through our subscript subscription community, um, you help us, uh, create more content and do more. So, please subscribe to you us on YouTube.

17:23 It's free and we'd appreciate it. Bye everyone.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Trump ARRESTS Don Lemon In MASSIVE ASSAULT On First Amendment"?

Dan (Guest).

What is "Trump ARRESTS Don Lemon In MASSIVE ASSAULT On First Amendment" about?

Former CNN journalist Don Lemon has been arrested for participating in a protest at a church in Minnesota, alongside independent journalist Georgia Fort, raising concerns about First Amendment rights. This incident coincides with the Trump administration's release of millions of Epstein files and Trump's announcement of a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, amidst other significant news…

What is mentioned in this Pod Save America episode?

8 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Don Lemon, Trump Administration, Georgia Fort, Elon Musk, Sean Bannon, Kate Blanch. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Trump ARRESTS Don Lemon In MASSIVE ASSAULT On First Amendment"?

The episode runs 18 min; the transcript is about 3,563 words in 48 timestamped sections.

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