Georgia Fort was arrested... for being a journalist

[Reported by Rachel Leingang, The Guardian, April 16, 2026]

'When federal agents arrived at Georgia Fort’s front door to arrest her, she knew what to do: be a journalist.

'Fort, an independent Minnesota reporter who faces criminal charges after covering a protest inside a St Paul church, took out her phone and spoke directly to the camera, livestreaming to her audience that her lawyer advised her to go with the agents. Her three kids were in the house at the time, she said.

“I’m going to have to hop off here and surrender to agents,” she said in the video on 30 January. “As a member of the press, I filmed the church protest a few weeks ago, and now I’m being arrested for that. It’s hard to understand how we have a constitution, constitutional rights, when you can just be arrested for being a member of the press.”

'Fort was one of two journalists, alongside Don Lemon, charged for covering the 18 January protest during services at St Paul’s Cities church, where the pastor reportedly works as a field director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“I decided to go live [during my arrest] because I felt like it was necessary to be able to tell my story about who I am and my longstanding commitment to journalism,” she said, “and to alert the public that this was a violation of my first amendment rights.”