Don Lemon hires surprising attorney, an ex-Trump appointee prosecutor who exposed massive Minnesota fraud case
Former CNN host Don Lemon has added an unlikely attorney to his legal team as he faces charges over his role in a January protest by anti-immigration enforcement agitators at a Minnesota church.
Joe Thompson, who served as the acting U.S. attorney for Minnesota after being appointed by President Donald Trump in May 2025, resigned from the U.S. Attorney's Office in January. He was the lead prosecutor who helped uncover the massive $250 million Feeding Our Future food fraud case tied to the state's Somali community.
A notice of appearance was filed on Tuesday, indicating Thompson "shall appear as counsel of record for defendant Don Renaldo Lemon" moving forward. Thompson is expected to work with Lemon’s lead defense attorney, Abbe Lowell, who previously represented Hunter Biden in his tax and gun-charge case.
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The New York Times and other outlets, including NBC News, reported that Thompson and other prosecutors resigned over the Justice Department's approach to the investigation of the fatal shooting of Renee Good. But a DOJ official told Fox News Digital that the prosecutors had submitted early retirement paperwork months earlier, which preceded the shooting death of Good. They remain on the job until their retirement date, the official said.
However, the Times reported again on Tuesday that Lemon’s new attorney resigned "over the Justice Department’s handling of the immigration operation."
Thompson did not immediately respond to a request for comment when reached by Fox News Digital.
Lemon, who last month livestreamed left-wing agitators storming St. Paul's Cities Church under the suspicion that its pastor had collaborated with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is charged with conspiracy to deprive religious freedom rights and a violation of the FACE Act.
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Thompson has also been involved in several other high-profile cases, including filing federal charges against Vance Boelter for his alleged shooting rampage that killed Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and seriously wounded Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune.
The FACE Act makes it a federal crime, with potentially steep fines and jail time, to use or threaten to use force to "injure, intimidate, or interfere" with a person seeking reproductive health services, or with a person lawfully trying to exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship. It also prohibits intentional property damage to a facility providing reproductive health services or a place of religious worship.
Lemon previously told Fox News Digital that he stands by his reporting and has faced online threats as a result.
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"It’s notable that I’ve been cast as the face of a protest I was covering as a journalist — especially since I wasn’t the only reporter there. That framing is telling. What’s even more telling is the barrage of violent threats, along with homophobic and racist slurs, directed at me online by MAGA supporters and amplified by parts of the right-wing press," Lemon said in a statement.
"If this much time and energy is going to be spent manufacturing outrage, it would be far better used investigating the tragic death of Renee Nicole Good — the very issue that brought people into the streets in the first place," Lemon continued. "I stand by my reporting."
Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report.