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(Los Angeles, CA) -- Former CNN anchor Don Lemon is in federal custody.
His lawyer, Abbe Lowell, says he was arrested in Los Angeles last night while there to cover the Grammy Awards.
Lemon's arrest comes after he entered a St. Paul, Minnesota church earlier this month during an anti-ICE protest.
Lemon has said he was covering the protest as a journalist, but prosecutors allege his crimes are literally on video.
"Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done," Lowell said in a statement. "The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable. There is no more important time for people like Don to be doing this work." Lowell adds that, Don will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court."
A magistrate judge initially refused to sign an arrest warrant for Lemon, so he was indicted by a grand jury which found probable cause that Lemon violated civil rights by unlawfully interfering with the churchgoers' constitutional-protected freedom to practice religion.
Three demonstrators with Lemon have already been arrested in connection with the protest on felony charges of conspiring to interfere with the civil rights of others.
He is reportedly charged with conspiring to violate the Constitutional rights of citizens and interfering with religious freedoms (18 U.S.C. § 241) along with a possible violation of the FACE Act.