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By Dan Gooding and Joshua Rhett Miller
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A journalist filmed the moments before she was arrested by federal agents on Friday morning, after covering an anti-ICE protest in Minnesota.
Georgia Fort shared a video on her Facebook page with the caption: “Agents are at my door.” In it, she explained that she knew she would be targeted after filming the protest at Cities Church in St. Paul earlier this month.
“We are supposed to have our Constitutional right of the freedom to film, to be a member of the press. I don't feel like I have my First Amendment right as a member of the press,” Fort said in the video.
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The independent journalist was detained the same morning as former CNN anchor Don Lemon, who had also covered the protest, Trahern Jeen Crews, and Jamael Lydell Lundy, per Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Why It Matters
The arrest of at least two journalists sparked outrage Friday, with fellow reporters and several lawmakers raising concerns about First Amendment rights and whether the Trump administration was ignoring these. The White House has framed the protest as an infringement of churchgoers’ rights to practice religion, launching a civil rights investigation into the events nearly two weeks ago.
Journalist Georgia Fort Records Arrest: What We Know
Fort, who is an independent journalist working out of Minneapolis, has covered the unrest that has broken out across the Twin Cities in recent weeks after the Trump administration ramped up immigration enforcement efforts there.
In the video shared Friday morning, Fort said federal agents at her door had told her they had secured a warrant for her arrest after being able to secure one from a grand jury sometime in the past 24 hours. She said she understood she would be taken to the Whipple Building, a federal building in Minneapolis.
“My children are here, they’re impacted by this,” she said. “This is all stemming from the fact that I filmed a protest as a member of the media.”
Fort went on to say she did not have much time before agents could be heard demanding she come to the door, and the video abruptly ended.
Fort’s attorney, Leita Walker, said the independent journalist had been arrested at her home in St. Paul at about 6 a.m. Friday. She’s scheduled to make her initial court appearance on Friday afternoon.
“We expect her to be released at that time,” Walker told Newsweek early Friday, declining further comment.
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Who Are Jamael Lydell Lundy and Trahern Crews? Others Arrested in Relation to the Cities Church Protest
The protest in question unfolded at Cities Church in St. Paul on Sunday, January 18, aimed at a pastor at the church, David Easterwood, who also heads the local ICE field office responsible for operations.
Video from the protest showed anti-ICE demonstrators entering the church building and calling for federal agents to leave Minnesota, in the wake of the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent just over a week earlier.
Alongside Fort was fellow journalist Don Lemon, a former CNN anchor who had also filmed the event. A federal judge had previously declined to sign a complaint against him.
Bondi also named two other suspects arrested Friday: Jamael Lydell Lundy and Trahern Crews.
Crews, 51, is an activist and cofounder of Black Lives Matter Minnesota. He previously ran for the House of Representatives as a Democrat in 2018 and for mayor of St. Paul in 2017, according to Ballotpedia.
Lundy is 37, of Minneapolis. He, Crews, and Fort all had multiple prior arrests, per records seen by Newsweek.
What Is The FACE Act?
The DOJ and FBI have sought to charge protestors under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act. It prohibits physically obstructing or using the threat of force to intimidate or interfere with a person seeking reproductive health services or seeking to participate in a service at a house of worship.
During the Biden administration, the act was used to prosecute those blocking access to abortion clinics, something the Trump administration has criticized as a weaponization of law enforcement.
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What People Are Saying
Georgia Fort, speaking Friday: “It’s hard to understand how we have a Constitution, Constitutional rights, when you can just be arrested for being a member of the press.”
Abbe Lowell, attorney for Don Lemon, in a statement to Newsweek earlier Friday: “Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done. The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable.”
Seth Stern, chief of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, in a statement to Newsweek: “These arrests under bogus legal theories for obviously constitutionally protected reporting are clear warning shots aimed at other journalists. The unmistakable message is that journalists must tread cautiously because the government is looking for any way to target them. Fort’s arrest is meant to instill the same fear in local independent journalists as big names like Lemon.
“The answer to this outrageous attack is not fear or self-censorship. It’s an even stronger commitment to journalism, the truth, and the First Amendment. If the Trump administration thinks it can bully journalists into submission, it is wrong. We’ve recently seen that even in the Trump era, public pressure still can work. It’s time to do it again. News outlets across the political spectrum need to loudly defend Lemon’s rights. Journalists are not making themselves the story, Trump is."
What Happens Next
The DOJ is expected to release further details on charges against the four arrested later Friday.
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