Federal Judge Rejects Trump DOJ Search Warrants Targeting Don Lemon and Georgia Fort's YouTube Accounts
Contributing writer Clint Combs reports on unsealed court filings revealing that the Trump Justice Department twice tried and failed to obtain search warrants for the YouTube accounts of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort and phone records tied to Cities Church protest figures, with U.S. Magistrate Judge John F. Docherty rejecting all five applications and faulting prosecutors for failing to disclose the Privacy Protection Act.
The Trump Justice Department twice tried and failed to obtain search warrants for the YouTube accounts of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort and for phone records tied to people involved in a Cities Church protest, according to unsealed court filings.
Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Timothy Gerber submitted five search warrant applications to the court last February, asking Google to turn over the names, addresses and phone numbers of anyone who subscribed to or viewed the YouTube channels of Lemon, Fort and William “Da Woke Farmer” Kelly. Gerber also asked Apple to hand over account names, addresses, email addresses and other contact information for phone numbers allegedly registered to civil rights activist Nekima Levy Armstrong and protester Ian Davis Austin.
U.S. Magistrate Judge John F. Docherty rejected all five applications, citing a lack of evidence and faulting government prosecutors for failing to disclose the Privacy Protection Act, a 1980 law that shields journalists from having their work product and newsroom materials seized.
“When the government presented these warrants, both originally and for re-presentment, it did not direct the Court’s attention to the Privacy Protection Act,” Judge Docherty wrote. “It should have.”
The government later withdrew the search warrants. Docherty ordered them unsealed.
The distinction between a subpoena and a search warrant matters: the government typically subpoenas news organizations for specific documents, recordings or testimony, giving journalists an opportunity to challenge the request before handing anything over. Search warrants bypass that safeguard. Federal investigators can seize reporting materials and phone records immediately, and reporters can only challenge the seizure after the fact.
“The judge’s findings raise serious concerns about government overreach and the targeting of protest activity and movement organized by the Trump authoritarian regime,” Levy Armstrong said.
The arrests of Lemon, Fort and independent documentary photographer Junn Bollmann sparked alarm from free speech advocates and news organizations nationwide.
“These failed search warrants are what happens when incompetent prosecutors pursue political vendettas instead of justice,” said Freedom of the Press Foundation Senior Advocacy Adviser Caitlin Vogus. “Having or watching a YouTube channel aren’t crimes, and neither is reporting on a protest.”
Vogus noted the DOJ again omitted any mention of the Privacy Protection Act from its applications and later wrongly insisted prosecutors weren’t required to flag potential violations of federal law to judges reviewing the warrants.
The case is not the first time the Trump administration has been caught failing to alert judges to the law. The FBI raided the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson, seizing her cell phone, work laptop, a recorder, a portable hard drive and a smartwatch. Judge William B. Porter rejected the DOJ’s request to search the seized devices in a February opinion sharply critical of the government.
“Allowing the government’s filter team to search a reporter’s work product, most of which consists of unrelated information from confidential sources, is the equivalent of leaving the government’s fox in charge of the Washington Post’s henhouse,” Judge Porter wrote.
The Star Tribune, Spokesman-Recorder, Sahan Journal and Minnesota Reformer condemned the arrests in a joint statement. “In America we do not arrest journalists for doing their jobs,” the organizations wrote. “The Minnesota journalism community united in defense of press freedom and the essential role reporting plays in holding power to account.”
“Secrecy around search warrants can be dangerous,” Vogus said. “These applications only became public because the government failed so badly, and Judge Docherty properly recognized the public’s right to see them. Given the DOJ’s repeated attacks on First Amendment rights, journalists and all Americans should be asking what’s still buried in sealed search warrant applications around the country.”
St. Paul City Attorney Irene Kao declined to file state charges. Federal charges against 39 people remain pending. Lemon and Fort were not available for comment.
Clint Combs welcomes reader responses at combs0284@gmail.com.