Former CNN host Don Lemon has pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from his coverage of a protest last month at a church over federal immigration raids in the US state of Minnesota.
Lemon, 59, was charged with conspiracy to deprive rights and interfering with religious freedoms by allegedly obstructing someone's First Amendment rights by force.
He was arrested after entering the Cities Church in St Paul on 18 January with protesters who said one of its pastors was an immigration enforcement official.
He livestreamed the protest, which resulted in charges for eight other people.
Lemon did not speak as he entered the courtroom on Friday in St Paul, where dozens of protesters gathered to support him, chanting [Attorney General] Pam Bondi has got to go, according to the Associated Press.
Four co-defendants who were there with Lemon also pleaded not guilty.
Lemon has defended his decision to enter the church, stating he was simply carrying out his duty as an independent journalist covering the protest. I have spent my entire career covering the news. I will not stop now, he said soon after his arrest.
During Friday's hearing, one of Lemon's lawyers, Abbe Lowell, expressed concerns that investigators had taken Lemon's mobile phone when they arrested him in Los Angeles late last month.
Lemon and eight other co-defendants, including another journalist, have been charged with conspiracy against religious freedom and injuring, intimidating, and interfering with the exercise of the right of religious freedom.
In the 18 January incident, protesters interrupted a church service by chanting ICE out and Justice for Renee Good, a mother of three fatally shot by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer last month in Minneapolis. Lemon maintained that he was there purely as a journalist and not affiliated with the church protestors.
Footage showed a chaotic scene in the church, affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, where protesters and congregation members exchanged heated words.
Federal agents killed another protester, intensive care nurse Alex Pretti, in Minneapolis two weeks later. Both Pretti and Good were protesting against the Trump administration's immigration enforcement efforts in Minnesota, which has since concluded.
In a post after Lemon's arrest, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that Trump will not tolerate the intimidation and harassment of Christians in their sacred places of worship.
A longtime critic of Trump, Lemon was dismissed from CNN in April 2023 after 17 years with the network, following on-air comments that caused controversy.
