Who Is Georgia Fort, The Journalist Arrested With Don Lemon
Press Under Fire! Meet Georgia Fort, The Journalist Arrested With Don Lemon For Filming An ICE Protest And Doing Her Job
The recent arrest of Don Lemon has cast a spotlight on Emmy Award–winning journalist Georgia Fort, a Minnesota-based independent reporter, who covered the Jan. 18 Cities Church protest alongside the former CNN anchor.
Georgia Fort, an Emmy-winning journalist, was arrested for reporting on an anti-ICE protest at a church in Minnesota.
Source: Photo courtesy of Georgia Fort’s website / Georgia Fort
The recent arrest of Don Lemon has cast a spotlight on Emmy Award–winning journalist Georgia Fort, a former news anchor and radio host, who now works as an independent journalist based in Minnesota. Like Lemon, Fort was reporting from the front lines during the anti-ICE protest at Cities Church in St. Paul on Jan. 18. As the situation continues to unfold, questions are being raised about who Fort is and why she has become the target of federal action.
On Jan. 30, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that Lemon, Fort, and two other individuals were arrested “in connection with the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Jan. 18.” Supporters of both journalists contend the arrests were unjustified, stressing that Lemon and Fort were not involved in organizing or participating in the protest and were present solely to report on the demonstration, a right protected under the First Amendment.
Fort maintained her innocence Friday morning during a Facebook Live broadcast shortly before surrendering to federal agents. She said agents arrived at her home with what she described as an “indictment” issued by a grand jury calling for her arrest.
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“This is all stemming from the fact that I filmed a protest as a member of the media,” she said. “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 because now federal agents are at my door, arresting me for filming the church protest a few weeks ago. Again, I don’t have a long time, but I wanted you to know from me, agents are at my door right now.”
Fort was released on Friday afternoon.
Fort was released from custody Friday afternoon, according to a video published by Fox 9. She thanked her supporters for advocating for her innocence and questioned whether the First Amendment was still a right in America.
“As I reflect as a journalist who has worked in media for more than 17 years, I leave this federal courthouse today with one question. Do we have a constitution? I should be protected under the First Amendment just like all of the journalists who I’ve been advocating for too. I’ve been advocating for mainstream media journalists who have been brutalized for months. Do we have a constitution? That is the pressing question that should be on the front of everyone’s minds.”
She added, “Documenting what is happening in our community is not a crime.”
A video obtained by reporter Phillip Lewis on Threads also captured Fort being embraced with hugs by supporters and family as she was released.
Why were Georgia Fort and Don Lemon at the Cities Church?
Fort’s arrest stems from the chaotic events of Jan. 18 at Cities Church in St. Paul. Fort and Lemon were live-streaming as dozens of anti–Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protesters entered the church, disrupted a religious service, and engaged in tense confrontations. The protest targeted the church because it is led by David Easterwood, who serves as both the church’s pastor and director of a local ICE field office. According to Politico, approximately three dozen protesters entered the building.
Before the Jan. 18 incident, Fort captured extensive footage of protests unfolding across Minneapolis as residents demonstrated against ICE’s presence in the city.
Notably, she was on the scene for the emotional memorial for Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old ICU nurse who was shot and killed by a federal Border Patrol agent on Jan. 24.
Who is Georgia Fort?
Georgia Fort is a three-time Midwest Emmy Award–winning journalist and was one of only two reporters present in the courtroom during the sentencing of Derek Chauvin, according to her website. Her mission as a storyteller is to change narratives by amplifying truth, elevating diverse sources, and providing context around social justice issues.
“I became an independent journalist to close gaps in mainstream coverage of Minnesota communities,” Fort noted in an Instagram post shared Jan. 23. “When critical moments were unfolding, context was missing. So I began documenting and producing news for social media and live-streaming events as they happened. I created stories series that profiled our leaders and artists highlighting the depth and brilliance of our community.”
With more than 15 years of experience in commercial and nonprofit radio and television news, Fort has built a reputation as a thought leader in equitable journalism. In 2023, she launched Here’s the Truth, an independently produced television news program that earned 12 Regional Emmy nominations and won three awards. Her work has been recognized by the National Association for Women in Business, the Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists, and the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.
In 2022, Fort founded the nonprofit Center for Broadcast Journalism to increase representation in Minnesota media. The organization later acquired Power 104.7 FM as part of its mission to train and mobilize the next generation of journalists. Since its founding, nearly a dozen scholars from the program have gone on to work as television reporters, news editors, digital producers, or journalism students at the collegiate level. Fort also contributed to reporting for a PBS Frontline documentary that year.
In 2024, Fort won one Regional Emmy and received six nominations. She was also nominated for Best Journalist of the Year by the Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists Page One Awards, named to the Minneapolis Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 list, and received honors from the Urban League, the National Association of Women in Business Minnesota, and Press Forward at both the national and local levels.
Currently, she is the Vice President of the Minnesota chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists, according to her Instagram.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, Ben Crump and M4BL have defended Fort.
Several high-profile figures have spoken out in defense of Fort and Lemon, including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and civil rights attorney Ben Crump.
On Friday, Bass called for their release in a post on X.
“Don Lemon, an internationally known and renowned journalist and friend, was arrested last night by federal agents and is now in custody in Los Angeles – simply for doing his job and following a protest into a church in Minneapolis while reporting the story,” Bass penned. “Emmy-winning news producer and Minnesota-based journalist Georgia Fort – another widely respected Black journalist – was also arrested by federal agents in Minnesota for reporting on the same protest.”
Bass added, “The arrest of journalists for going into a church in the course of reporting is shocking enough, but what’s even more alarming is that it’s no secret that Don Lemon is a Trump critic. Let me be very clear – President Trump is not de-escalating anything after the fatal shootings of U.S. citizens by federal agents. In fact, the arrest of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort demonstrates quite the opposite – he is escalating.”
Crump echoed similar concerns, describing the arrests as a direct threat to press freedom and the First Amendment.
“Independent journalist Georgia Fort was, like Don Lemon, arrested for doing her job: documenting a protest of public concern. When members of the press are taken into custody simply for filming and reporting, it sends a chilling message to every journalist in America. The First Amendment does NOT belong to the powerful; it exists to protect truth, accountability, and the public’s right to know. We must speak out when press freedom is under attack!” Crump wrote.
“These arrests in Minneapolis are a blatant attempt to silence those who are documenting and protesting the immense cruelty of the Trump administration’s fascist tactics. They have arrested faith leaders,activists, students, teachers, and anyone else who dares express their disagreement with this administration in an effort to protect their communities. A tactic of authoritarianism is crushing dissent, and we are witnessing this play out not only in Minnesota but around the country,” wrote M Adams and Dr. Amara Enyia, Co-Executives, Movement for Black Lives in a statement.
“This administration will do anything to prevent people from seeing the evil and violence they are inflicting on our communities every day, and their intentional failures to address rising costs of food and healthcare, skyrocketing rent and utilities, and the devastating impacts of climate change, as half the country is currently enduring a record-breaking ice storm and cold front. It’s their hope that the threat of arrest, abuse, and deadly violence will silence journalists, that the fear will push people off the streets and back into our homes so they can continue kidnapping and terrorizing our people without resistance.”
“In the face of this repression, care and people power are the only ways efforts of resistance can endure and defeat these right-wing attacks. Much of that has begun to develop organically in cities like Minneapolis, Chicago, and Washington DC, but more support is needed. That’s why we’re developing Community Care Networks in key cities across the country. In partnership with local organizations, these networks are meant to help develop and expand local connections, meet each other’s needs as the right decimates social programs, and build political power together to resist fascism and win back control of our communities, our systems, our courts, and, eventually, our nation. We will continue to show that an ethic of care is the answer to the cruelty of empire.”
In addition to Lemon and Fort, two other individuals were also arrested: Trahern Jeen Crew, a prominent social justice activist in St. Paul, and Jamael Lydell Lundy, an employee of the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and a Democratic-Farmer-Labor candidate for state Senate, according to the Minnesota Reformer.
