Sunny Hostin said she felt the DOJ wanted “to send a message” and “intimidate and harass” Lemon as a journalist.

Don Lemon tells The View he got ‘the N-word treatment’ over arrest, tears up on air: ‘They want to embarrass people’

Sunny Hostin said she felt the DOJ wanted "to send a message" and "intimidate and harass" Lemon as a journalist.

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Joey Nolfi is a senior writer at *. *Since 2016, his work at EW includes RuPaul’s Drag Race video interviews, Oscars predictions, and more.

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April 2, 2026 3:54 p.m. ET

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Don Lemon tears up on 'The View' over DOJ arrest. Credit:

Months after his headlines-making arrest over his coverage of a protest inside a Minnesota church, former CNN anchor turned independent journalist Don Lemon has opened up about how he was treated by federal agents.

Speaking Thursday morning on *The View*, Lemon told the cohosts that his legal team attempted to contact Department of Justice authorities when they caught wind of his impending arrest, and advised that, "All they had to do was [say] 'Hey, Mr. Lemon, turn yourself in," and he would've complied. Instead, they arrested him at a hotel in Los Angeles, where he traveled to cover the 2026 Grammy Awards.

Former federal prosecutor and current *View* panelist Sunny Hostin — who previously worked with Lemon at CNN — told her friend and former colleague that she felt the government arrested him in such a sensationalized manner "to send a message to intimidate and harass" the press.

"I've been leaning on Sunny for counsel just as a friend. No legal stuff, but just as a friend," Lemon told the audience, adding that he felt he was arrested "because they want to embarrass people" in public.

Lemon and Sunny Hostin on 'The View'.

"As my friend, who is also an attorney, said, 'They gave you the N-word treatment,'" Lemon said, — an assessment Hostin said she agreed with.

Later in the interview, Lemon teared up upon recalling the moment during the arrest in which he took off a diamond bracelet given to him by his husband, because it was getting caught on his handcuffs.

"I was fiddling with it, [and an agent] was like, 'Do you want me to take that off?'" Lemon recalled, adding that he asked the agent if he was going to keep it safe.

"There was an FBI agent that walked up to me and said, 'I will take care of it.' I said, 'Give this to my husband...' And he took it up," Lemon continued, tearing up at the memory. "That was the only way that any body knew that I'd been arrested."

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Lemon said that the Department of Justice also still has his cell phone, "So, if you're texting me, Pam Bondi's reading it," he joked, hours before Donald Trump announced that Bondi was out as his attorney general, with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche stepping in as an acting attorney general in her place.

"Pam Bondi is a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend, who faithfully served as my Attorney General over the past year,” Trump said in a statement, per the Associated Press. “We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future."

Following his arrest in January, Lemon's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement that "Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done."

Lemon leaves with his legal team after an arraignment hearing.

Stephen Maturen/Getty

Lowell continued, “This unprecedented attack on the First Amendment and transparent attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration will not stand. Don will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court."

Lemon was arrested over allegations that he broke a federal law with his reporting on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protest inside a St. Paul, Minn., church during a Jan. 18 service, where an ICE officer served as a pastor, and protesters later interrupted by repeating, "ICE out," per the *New York Times*.

* *has reached out to the Department of Justice and the FBI for comment.

*The View* airs weekdays on ABC.

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