LEFT: Don Lemon (Screenshot) RIGHT: Pam Bondi (Mark Schiefelbein/AP photo/X)

Conservative legal commentator and Fox News contributor Andy McCarthy delivered warnings to both Don Lemon — the former CNN journalist who has been arrested in connection with his alleged participation with a protest that interrupted a St. Paul church service — and the Department of Justice on Friday.

In a column for National Review, McCarthy reminded readers of a point he has previously made: “Assuming there is an indictment, whether now or in the near future, if Lemon is going to have to try to get the case thrown out on a pretrial motion to dismiss; the First Amendment does not protect a journalist from being charged with a crime; it may protect him from being convicted.”

“The Justice Department gives the press a wide berth based on regulations and norms that honor the First Amendment’s acknowledgment of a free press; there is a reluctance to prosecute or compel the production of information. But the Constitution is not a press shield,” argued the former federal prosecutor. “If a reporter violates a criminal statute — whether or not ostensibly in the course of journalistic reporting — the First Amendment does not immunize the reporter from prosecution.”

“On the other hand, if a reporter truly was acting as a journalist, that may influence a court’s assessment of whether ambiguous evidence shows true criminally culpability. For example, unless there is evidence of involvement in conspiratorial planning or hands-on forcible activity, it would be tough to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a reporter who was merely present at a riot was not investigating it for journalistic purposes, rather than actionably participating in it,” concluded McCarthy, who noted that there is a “much lower standard” for securing an indictment than convicting a defendant.

The post Fox’s Andy McCarthy Warns Don Lemon He’s Not Immune From Prosecution — But Says It Will Be ‘Tough’ to Convict Him first appeared on Mediaite.