This story appeared in The Logoff, a each day e-newsletter that helps you keep knowledgeable concerning the Trump administration with out letting political information take over your life. Subscribe right here.
Welcome to The Logoff: The Trump administration is indicting two journalists for his or her protection of a Minneapolis protest.
What occurred? Don Lemon, a longtime CNN host who was fired from the community in 2023, and Georgia Fort, an unbiased journalist in St. Paul, Minnesota, had been charged with conspiracy to deprive rights and interfering with non secular freedom on Friday, together with a number of protesters.
The fees stem from their protection of a Minneapolis-area protest earlier this month; activists interrupted a church service in St. Paul over a pastor on the church who works for ICE, whereas Lemon and Fort documented the protest.
The indictment, unsealed Friday, which prices 9 whole individuals on the identical two counts, alleges Lemon, Fort, and the opposite defendants “entered the Church in a coordinated takeover-style assault and engaged in acts of oppression, intimidation, threats, interference, and bodily obstruction.”
What’s the context? The Trump administration tried and did not cost Lemon at the very least twice previous to Friday’s indictment by a grand jury. Shortly after the protest, a federal Justice of the Peace choose refused to signal an arrest warrant for Lemon; when the Trump administration appealed that call, it was additionally rejected by a federal district courtroom choose and by a federal appeals courtroom panel.
Three activists had been additionally charged final week in reference to the protests; in a single occasion, the White Home digitally manipulated a photograph of Nekima Levy Armstrong to make it seem she was crying when she was arrested.
Why does this matter? The indictment of journalists is disturbing on its face, as are the lengths the Trump administration went to to safe the indictment. Equally alarming is the administration’s obvious giddiness: The White Home touted Lemon’s arrest in an X publish Friday morning, writing “When life provides you lemons… ⛓️” over a black-and-white photograph of Lemon. It additionally referred to the “St. Paul Church Riots” — plural, although it was a single protest.
And with that, it’s time to log out…
This story made me smile on the finish of a protracted week: Folks raised greater than $8,000 for a faculty crossing guard in Chicago, Joe Sass, after he went viral for serving to a scholar throughout a road flooded with icy slush.
“I like being a helper,” Sass informed the Washington Publish (it’s a present hyperlink). “And I feel if individuals may consider me as that, then I feel that’s like some of the lovely issues on the earth. I’m only a good friend out right here serving to my neighbors.”
Have a restful weekend, and we’ll see you again right here on Monday!
