FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
New York, May 27, 2026 — A federal judge twice rejected search warrant applications for the YouTube accounts of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, according to court records unsealed yesterday. Federal prosecutors sought the search warrants in connection with the spurious criminal cases they’re pursuing against Lemon and Fort for covering a protest at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota. A third journalist, photographer Junn Bollmann, is also facing baseless charges.
Magistrate Judge John Docherty rejected the initial warrants — which sought information about Lemon and Fort’s use of their YouTube channels as well as information about the people who may have watched them — because they lacked probable cause, a basic legal requirement for all search warrants.
Docherty then refused to sign the resubmitted search warrants because they failed to comply with the requirements of the Privacy Protection Act of 1980, a federal law that prohibits most search warrants targeting journalists and others who disseminate information to the public. The government later withdrew the search warrants, and Docherty ordered them unsealed.
The following statement can be attributed to Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) Senior Advocacy Adviser Caitlin Vogus:
“These failed search warrants are what happens when incompetent prosecutors pursue political vendettas instead of justice. Having or watching a YouTube channel aren’t crimes, and neither is reporting on a protest. Before the Department of Justice embarrasses itself even more, it should immediately drop the prosecutions of Don Lemon, Georgia Fort, and Junn Bollmann.
“Once again, the DOJ also conveniently left out of its applications any mention of the Privacy Protection Act of 1980 and later wrongly insisted that prosecutors don’t need to tell judges when the warrants the government seeks may violate federal law. At this point, every judge should assume the DOJ will try to sneak illegal search warrants past the court. Congress should pass the Privacy Protection Updates Act before this abuse gets even worse.
“Secrecy around search warrants can be dangerous. These applications only became public because the government failed so badly, and Judge John Docherty properly recognized the public’s right to see them. Given the DOJ’s repeated attacks on First Amendment rights and flagrant abuse of the legal system, journalists and all Americans should be asking what’s still buried in sealed search warrant applications around the country.”
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