Search warrant unsealed: Don Lemon criminal case update.

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:04]Okay, everyone. New information about Don Lemon's criminal case. And this time we have in attention and sloppy work from one of the magistrate judges in the case, John Dockerty. Now, I understand the magistrate judges are overworked, but now I'm getting a glimpse as to why the arrest warrant for Don Lemon was initially denied before the indictment was returned in January. A new filing this week from Don Lemon's attorneys is alleged supplemental authority to bolster Lemon's motion for grand jury disclosures. But one of the supplemental authorities is a rejected search warrant application that was filed with magistrate judge Doerty. Now there are irregularities with the warrant application. I agree with that part.

[00:00:50]First, the application is signed by a DHS special agent apparently without the concurrence of the US attorney. Now, usually there is a signature or stamp from the US attorney on the warrant application. Here, nothing of the sort.

[00:01:04]Now, uh, Department of Justice regulations require a US attorney concurrence. Generally, quoting from the regulation, only in the very rare and emergent case is the law enforcement officer permitted to seek a search warrant without the concurrence of the appropriate US attorney's office."

[00:01:21]unquote. Now, that leaves some wiggle room for DHS to file a warrant application without the US attorney, as it did here. But in my view, the warrant application needed to be worked over by a legal mind, a government attorney who's law trained before it went to the magistrate judge. But the magistrate judge goofed as well.

[00:01:43]Now, the magistrate judge at the time issued a blistering order denying a warrant application that was filed after the indictment because of alleged overbreath. Now, the magistrate judge said, for example, that the warrant application was seeking all subscriber information from YouTube for Don Lemon's YouTube channel. Now, the magistrate judge even quotes allegedly from the warrant application and says that it seeks, and I quote, subscriber information in any form kept, including the names of subscribers, physical addresses, IP addresses from which the Don Lemon show was accessed, etc. But I checked the warrant application that Lemon's attorneys attached as alleged supplemental authority. application number 26 MJ 205J and the word subscriber is nowhere to be found in the warrant application. The government didn't ask for any of that.

[00:02:36]The government did not seek subscriber information for Don Lemon's YouTube channel in application number 205. So, we have a possible explanation as to why the magistrate judges denied the arrest warrant for Don Lemon initially in January. The magistrate judges could have been asleep at the wheel even back then. One of the federal circuit judges even said there was probable cause of a crime.

[00:03:04]Now, we all watched the videos on YouTube. The anti-ICE activists gained access to the church through deception.

[00:03:11]shut down the worship service, chased the churchgoers out, screamed at children in the church, bered the pastor for wearing a suit during Sunday service instead of protesting outside the federal building alongside the activists every day. Now, literally, the activists are saying that the churchgoers should give up their lives and do what the activists are doing. And if they don't, they'll be harassed and doxed continually. And that's what's occurring now. U a new wave of anti-ICE activism has targeted the church with harassment, doxing, and a gauntlet in front of the church before services. Now, Lemon was on video conducting what looks to be hostage interviews, saying into the camera that the children in the church are obviously traumatized by the quote unquote activism and that that was the point. So, Lemon's argument is that undocumented migrants are uncomfortable, therefore everyone else should be uncomfortable. Now he's saying, "You're not good people, so we can take what you have because you don't deserve it anyway." Now, I'm not convinced by that argument. He could try the jury, though.

[00:04:18]The jury is up next for Lemon and his 37 co-conspirators, except they don't want to go to the jury. They're trying to get the case dismissed.

[00:04:28]Now, the main ground of dismissal is technical, of course, because the merits are solid. The merits are captured on video. Now, the defendants claimed that the DOJ could have committed misconduct before the grand jury. They don't have proof of that, but Lemon's attorneys filed the alleged supplemental authority this week, uh, including the rejected search warrant application showing in attention and inaccuracy by the magistrate judge. So, the government needs an opportunity to file its own supplemental authority in response.

[00:05:00]There's a presumption of regularity in grand jury proceedings and historically criminals have always gone after the witnesses in grand jury proceedings to try to quash the indictment so to speak.

[00:05:11]So there are policy reasons as well for keeping the proceedings secret. Now here the witnesses have to be protected because of continuing anti-ICE activism at the church. So, um, I repeat, the government did not ask for subscriber information for Don Lemon's YouTube channel in warrant application 205. Now, that was the only warrant application that Lemon's attorneys attached to their filing this week. It's possible that other warrant applications did seek subscriber information, but I haven't seen those applications yet. Now, in the coming weeks, I'll try to gain access to all of the unsealed warrant applications to find out if any of them sought subscriber information for the YouTube channels of any of the defendants. So, I'll report back on that later. Now, the government's attorneys may address that issue as well in their filings in the coming weeks. Probable cause needs to be made out in any warrant application, of course. Now, Lemon's attorneys also seek to bolster their motion for grand jury disclosures by pointing to rulings in other federal cases in which the judges say prosecutors committed misconduct before the grand jury, but those are different US attorney offices in different cases. There's been no indication of misconduct from the prosecutors in Lemon's case.

[00:06:29]Thanks for watching and if you enjoyed this video, leave a like and don't forget to subscribe.