Politics

An appeals court declined to compel lower courts to sign the warrants, reportedly enraging Attorney General Pam Bondi. The federal government now claims that Lemon and Fort, who was arrested in the pre-dawn hours at her home Friday, violated the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and “oppressed, threatened, and intimidated” congregants by occupying space in aisles and rows of chairs, engaging in “menacing and threatening behavior.”

The allegations are an absurd overreach of a 1994 law designed to prevent anti-abortion protesters from blocking access to clinics; it’s now being now weaponized against journalists for the crime of holding cameras while other people protested.

“My job as a journalist is to document what’s happening,” Fort explained on her Instagram that day. The video evidence shows Lemon calmly interviewing the pastor, the very person the federal government’s indictment claims he tried to “oppress and intimidate.” Notably, no career prosecutors signed on to the filing, only political appointees — a silent but deafening signal that professionals inside the department wanted nothing to do with this abuse of power.