Don Lemon Compares Federal Prosecution To Authoritarian Regime

Don Lemon thinks there may have been some shady dealings with the grand jury proceedings that led to his indictment ... and he's comparing his federal prosecution to something you might see in Russia, China, or Iran.

The former CNN anchor wants his legal team to get their paws on the transcripts from the grand jury proceedings in his case to see if the government misled jurors into charging him with federal crimes ... according to new legal docs obtained by TMZ.

Don seems to think there's a good chance the government may have misrepresented key issues to the grand jury to secure an indictment ... seeing as a magistrate and judge considered the evidence against him and declined charges before the grand jury finally indicted him.

In the docs, Don says federal conduct in his case has been "highly unusual, nakedly political and inconsistent" with other cases in Minnesota. He says the feds were under pressure from President Trump to secure an indictment and they went to a grand jury and got one.

Don says ... "These circumstances -- never before seen in this District, and for good reason -- raise serious concerns about the government's presentation to the grand jury. To date, everything in this case has been irregular; we can assume the grand jury proceedings were too."

Grand jury proceedings are usually kept secret, but Don says the need for disclosure here outweighs the importance of traditional grand jury secrecy.

The charges stem from an ICE protest Don insists he was just covering as a journalist last month in Minnesota ... the demonstration ripped through a church and disrupted a service.

Federal prosecutors claim Don collaborated with protest organizers, but he's maintained he was simply there in his capacity as a journalist. He appeared in court Friday and pleaded not guilty.