WASHINGTON — Lefty pundit Don Lemon has hired a former federal prosecutor in Minnesota, who sensationally quit in protest over the fatal shooting of anti-ICE protester Renee Nicole Good, to defend him against charges over the storming of a Minneapolis church.
Lemon tapped Joseph Thompson, who abruptly resigned from the US attorney’s office last month, to shore up his defense team, a Tuesday court filing revealed.
Thompson, a roughly 17-year veteran of the Justice Department, was also the prosecutor who sounded the alarm on the state’s sprawling social-services scam — in which he estimated a staggering $9 billion may have been stolen.
“What we see in Minnesota is not a handful of bad actors committing crimes,” Thompson declared in December. “It’s a staggering industrial-scale fraud. It’s swamping Minnesota and calling into question everything we know about our state.”
However, critics have claimed that the whopping estimate is baseless, with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) slamming it as “sensationalized.”
The staggering welfare fraud scandal in Minnesota that drew national attention last year set in motion a chain of events that led to President Trump’s ordering of Operation Metro Surge, which, in turn, triggered protests such as the infamous Jan. 18 church invasion underpinning Lemon’s indictment.
Lemon, a fierce critic of the president, did a livestream covering the protesters as they stormed a worship service at Cities Church last month. The agitators were targeting a pastor there, David Easterwood, who also worked as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer.
Easterwood was not present when the agitators interrupted the worship.
The former CNN anchor had gathered alongside the protesters in a parking lot before the ordeal and teased that he had advanced knowledge of their plans before following them into the church.
He was then arrested on Jan. 30 while in California to cover the Grammy Awards and charged with violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which is typically used to protect access to abortion clinics, but has a provision for religious services.
Lemon faces up to 10 years in prison. The YouTube personality and frequently fired journalist has argued that he was using his First Amendment rights and acting as a reporter covering a protest.
Top Trump administration officials have disputed that, contending that he was using his role as a journalist to shield himself from liability for disrupting a worship service, bashing it as “pseudojournalism.”
Fellow independent journalist Georgia Fort was also arrested and charged for her actions. Seven participants in the demonstration have also been arrested and charged.
Thompson will assist with Lemon’s defense alongside Abbe Lowell, who has represented a handful of high-profile clients such as scandal-scarred Hunter Biden, Fed governor Lisa Cook, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Ivanka Trump, the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, among others.
