‘Could be prosecuted’: Gregg Jarrett calls Don Lemon a ‘dope’ who doesn’t know most important part about right to protest
Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett said Monday that former CNN host Don Lemon has no grasp of the most basic limits of the First Amendment.
Lemon defended left wing activists who forced their way into an evangelical church service on Sunday after they accused the pastor of having ties to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Jarrett said on “The Bottom Line” that Lemon misunderstood the limits of the First Amendment, arguing that the right to protest does not permit activists to enter private property or disrupt church services, even if a journalist records the confrontation.
“There’s Don Lemon, you know, recording it all happily, claiming everybody has a right to do this. No, they don’t. Lemon doesn’t seem to know that the right to protest does not extend to private property and certainly not to churches, which are protected spaces under law,” Jarrett said.
Jarrett said the group that stormed the church and disrupted a worship service crossed clear legal lines.
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“So that mob you see on the screen that stormed the church, harassed, and terrorized the congregation during a church service can and should be prosecuted for a variety of crimes. And they would include trespass, disorderly conduct, disturbing a religious meeting, importantly, violating the FACE Act of federal law that protects houses of worship from threats and intimidation,” Jarrett said.
The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (commonly called the FACE Act) is a federal U.S. law enacted in 1994 that makes it a crime to use force, threats of force, or physical obstruction to prevent or interfere with a person’s ability to obtain or provide reproductive health services or to exercise their right of religious freedom at a place of worship. It also prohibits intentional damage or destruction of property of a reproductive health facility or place of worship.
“Don Lemon himself could also be prosecuted as a willing participant. He joined in and betted with the anti-ICE agitators, knowing full well that they intended to commit crimes,” Jarrett said. “And, you know, calling yourself a journalist, that’s not a defense. The First Amendment is not a shield from criminal charges, which makes Don Lemon the dope that we’ve all come to realize.”
Lemon aired footage of anti-ICE agitators disrupting a church service on his YouTube channel after arriving at Cities Church in Minneapolis, roughly 40 minutes into a Sunday livestream. He later claimed his role amounted to journalism while defending the activists who stormed the church, after the Justice Department announced a civil rights probe into the incident.
“The MAGA administration and the fake news MAGAs are losing their mind over something that’s not even true. So let me just make it clear, cause this assistant attorney general, I don’t know — gosh, what’s her name? Something Hammet Dillon or whatever. So, I have no affiliation to that organization,” Lemon said. “I didn’t even know they were going to this church until we followed them there. We were there chronicling protests.”
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