CNN in Panic Mode As Don Lemon Faces Court Appearance for Sexual Assault

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CNN's Don Lemon hauled to court over sexual assault allegations against him

CNN has entered “panic mode” after a sexual assault lawsuit against its host Don Lemon has been tentatively scheduled to land in court in January 2022, according to Fox News.

As News Punch first reported in 2019, multiple eyewitness stated that Lemon put his hands in the pants of a male victim at a bar, then shoved his fingers at the victim’s face, flicked his nostrils up and down, and asked him a series of sexually charged questions. 

The lawsuit represents and devastating blow for CNN, who entered crisis mode last week after it emerged that its other prime time host, Chris Cuomo, has been credibly accused of sexually assaulting a producer.

“The attorney for the man who accused fellow CNN host Don Lemon of a sexually charged assault expects the case to finally end up in court early next year after a prolonged legal process,” senior media reporter Brian Flood reports.

Newbusters.org reports: The report noted that it’s been two years since the lawsuit was filed in August of 2019 “accusing the ‘CNN Tonight’ host of assault and battery at a bar,” and three years since the alleged incident took place. A combination of a “lengthy discovery process and the coronavirus pandemic” was what had kept them from getting to court.

The details in the lawsuit were graphic and showed a side of Lemon not seen during his normal show, but perhaps his annual drunken benders as part of CNN’s New Year’s Eve debauchery:

“[Lemon] put his hand down the front of his own shorts, and vigorously rubbed his genitalia, removed his hand and shoved his index and middle fingers into Plaintiff’s mustache and under Plaintiff’s nose,” according to the lawsuit, filed Aug. 11, 2019 in Suffolk County Court.

“Lemon intensely pushed his fingers against Plaintiff’s face under Plaintiff’s nose, forcing Plaintiff’s head thrust backward as Defendant repeatedly asked Plaintiff ‘Do you like p—y or d–k?’ While saying this, Mr. Lemon continued to shove his fingers into Plaintiff’s face with aggression and hostility,” the suit alleged.

“The alleged incident occurred at Murf’s Backstreet Tavern, in the prestigious Sag Harbor town of the Hamptons area east of New York City in July 2018,” Flood noted. And we know that Lemon lives in that area because his swanky home appeared in Hamptons magazine. “Inside CNN News Host Don Lemon’s Sag Harbor Home,” the headline read.

And in a statement to Fox News, accuser Dustin Hice called out the sexist double standard being applied to his allegations because he’s a man and not a woman:

Last year, Hice told Fox News the alleged “vile, disgusting, lewd and inhumane” attack by Lemon would be treated much differently if Hice were a woman.

“I’m not doing this for notoriety or fame, I’m doing this because I’m standing up for myself and what I believe in,” Hice told Fox News. “I’ve grown a new respect for people dealing with mental health issues because stress, depression, anxiety, those are all very serious things. It consumed my life.”

In addition to Cuomo’s own sexually inappropriate actions coming under the microscope, attention was being drawn to comments he made about such accusations in an audio recording secretly captured by former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen. That’s not to mention his role in trying to aid his corrupt brother, disgraced New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) through his own sexual misconduct allegations.

Finally, Flood also recalled that “CNN also allowed legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin to return to the network after he was caught masturbating on a Zoom call with coworkers from his other gig at the New Yorker.”

This is CNN. Gross.