Former CNN host Don Lemon filed a new court document on Wednesday alleging that a Department of Homeland Security officer lied under oath in a sworn statement to the judge overseeing his case.

Lemon is among several journalists charged by the Department of Justice, which contends that the reporters were participating in a protest rather than acting as journalists while filming at a Minnesota church. The case touches on a recurring First Amendment question that has surfaced across multiple protest-related prosecutions in recent years: where the legal line falls between constitutionally protected newsgathering and criminal conduct when journalists are physically present among demonstrators. Authorities say one of the church's pastors had been coordinating with immigration agents.

National security expert Marcy Wheeler noted that this marks the second instance in which the Justice Department has asked Judge Douglas Minko to accept a complaint from an ICE agent who reviewed the church's broadcast video and then testified about its contents.

According to Lemon's filing, the agent falsely claimed that the journalists had joined protesters in chanting.

"That sworn allegation about Mr. Lemon was false," the filing states. "The government did not produce the draft complaint affidavit until July 17, 2026. At the July 24 hearing, the government explained that it submitted the affidavit to the Court in late January, but the Court did not sign it. The government then 'took Chief Judge Schiltz's advice' and obtained a grand jury indictment on January 29, 2026. Thus, only two days before securing the indictment, the government submitted a complaint affidavit falsely alleging that Mr. Lemon and the other journalists joined in the chanting. The timing strongly suggests that the government presented the same false account of the journalists' conduct to the grand jury."

On Friday, in an uncommon move, Judge Minko ordered the Justice Department to turn over all testimony and evidence that had been presented to the grand jury. The directive is specifically aimed at determining whether this sworn statement — and potentially others — were used to secure the indictment.

Grand jury proceedings are ordinarily kept secret, though judges in recent cases have permitted such material to be released to the defense in trial court proceedings. In a recent Chicago case, the Justice Department was found to have misled grand jurors and even dismissed jurors believed unlikely to deliver the desired indictment. That case involved six political leaders and activists who had been protesting outside an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois. The charges in that case were subsequently dropped, and the accused have requested a special counsel investigation.

Judge Minko stated that he wished to review the information himself first. However, Matthew Ebert, an attorney representing freelance journalist Georga Fort, said the government had already made false claims about his client, including in sworn affidavits, as Minneapolis Public Radio reported last week.

"The presumption of regularity has collapsed," Ebert said, invoking a long-standing legal doctrine that accords government actions a default assumption of proper procedure and good faith.

Justice Department prosecutor Neville Hedley told the judge that no false information contained in the earlier documents had made its way into the indictment. He did not address whether the disputed information had been presented to the grand jury during the indictment process.

"These were not material falsehoods," Hedley said. "This was a mistake, this was a miscommunication."

The affidavit, signed by DHS-ICE Special Agent Timothy Gerber, reads: "Broadcast video obtained from Cities church also shows ARMSTRONG, ALLEN, LEMON, RICHARDSON, KELLY, FORT, LUNDY, CREWS chanting with agitators and obstructing parishioners' path of travel."

Hedley did not specify what was "miscommunicated" in the agent's claim.

Lemon and his legal team have described the case against him and the other journalists as "weak."