Former CNN anchor Don Lemon was released by a federal judge on Friday after he was charged by the Trump administration with violating the freedom of religion of worshippers at a Minnesota church where he was covering a protest earlier this month.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced Lemon's release on personal recognizance bond outside a downtown federal courthouse.

Lemon was indicted alongside eight co-defendants more than a week after a federal magistrate judge found the Trump administration lacked probable cause to arrest him and several others under a federal statute that a top Justice Department official conceded had never been used in the context of a protest at a church before.

Lemon, 59, and three others — Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort and Jamael Lydell Lundy — were arrested Friday in what Attorney General Pam Bondi described in a post on X as a "coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota."

A federal grand jury seated in Minnesota returned the indictment on Thursday against Lemon and eight co-defendants. The indictment charges Lemon with conspiracy against the rights of religious freedom at a place of worship and injuring, intimidating, and interfering with the exercise of right of religious freedom at a place of worship.

The Trump administration attempted to keep three of Lemon's co-defendant detained until trial, according to court records, but a federal magistrate judge in Minnesota rejected their request for a detention hearing.

Lemon's attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement that he was taken into custody by federal agents in Los Angeles, where he was covering the Grammy Awards.

"Instead of investigating the federal agents who killed two peaceful Minnesota protesters, the Trump Justice Department is devoting its time, attention and resources to this arrest, and that is the real indictment of wrongdoing in this case,' Lowell said. "This unprecedented attack on the First Amendment and transparent attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration will not stand.

"Don will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court," Lowell added.

The arrest of one the country's most recognizable journalists is the latest development in the federal government’s unprecedented immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, in which two U.S. citizens have been shot and killed.

Promises made, promises kept

The Justice Department promised to pursue charges against Lemon after the independent journalist covered the protest at the church in St. Paul on Jan. 18.

A federal magistrate judge had previously rejected a criminal complaint against Lemon. A source familiar with the matter, described Bondi as “enraged” by the decision.

Friday's arrests followed the prior apprehension of three others — Nekima Levy Armstrong, Chauntyll Louisa Allen and William Kelly — who disrupted the same church service in St. Paul.

Demonstrators gathered at the service because its pastor, David Easterwood, allegedly works for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The protesters say Easterwood is the acting director of an ICE field office in St. Paul.

The federal government cited the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act to justify the arrest of the three protesters. The federal statute prohibits the use of force or intimidation to anyone trying to access reproductive services, but also contains provisions that cover houses of worship.

Harmeet Dhillon, the Trump administration’s top DOJ Civil Rights Division official, conceded earlier this month that the use of the statute in this manner lacks historical precedent.

“In all these years up until I was the assistant attorney general for civil rights, nobody ever used that houses of worship part to prosecute protesters or criminals blocking access to a house of worship, so we’ve started to do that,” Dhillon said in a video she posted earlier this month.

Trump had pardoned a number of anti-abortion protesters prosecuted under the FACE Act, and the Justice Department dismissed other cases that were pending.

A Justice Department memo issued days after Trump’s inauguration last year also created new bureaucratic hurdles on abortion cases that don’t apply to church cases. It mandates that “future abortion-related FACE Act prosecutions and civil actions will be permitted only in extraordinary circumstances, or in cases presenting significant aggravating factors, such as death, serious bodily harm, or serious property damage. Cases not presenting significant aggravating factors can adequately be addressed under state or local law.”

The previously arrested protesters were also released after federal judges rejected the Trump administration's attempts to keep them locked up until trial, with one judge saying the Trump administration offered “no factual or legal support” for their claim that this was a crime of violence.