Don Lemon has just arrived at a federal courthouse for his arraignment.
The former CNN anchor showed up at the St. Paul, Minnesota court Friday ready to enter his plea, which is expected to be not guilty.
HAPPENING NOW: Don Lemon arrives at Warren E Burger Fed Courthouse in St Paul ahead of an arraignment hearing today. He’s flanked by Joe Thompson, who is representing him after resigning from his position with the US Attorneys Office just weeks ago. @wccopic.twitter.com/d2I1s48Gz1
Representative Jake Auchincloss says politicians need to ditch their phones and get in touch with nature ... telling us most are nice IRL -- but they can get real nasty online.
We caught up with the the Democratic Congressman from Massachusetts on Capitol Hill earlier this week ... and we asked him about the differences between politicians' in-person and online personas.
2/13 -- 6:03 AM PT -- Following his chat with us, Too $horttells TMZ ... “I’m seriously into politics & I wish everybody would get involved & fight for the causes they believe in. I’ve been closely following American & world politics since I was a kid. No Americans should stay out of politics. Especially in 2026.”
Too $hort is blowing the whistle on rappers joining political movements ... he says hip hop should limit politics to the ballot box.
We got the Oakland OG at Chanel West Coast's single release party at Andys in West Hollywood, and our photog asked him about Nicki Minaj and Nelly recently going full MAGA.
Too $hort says not just rappers, but all Americans should keep their political views to themselves. He then takes us down memory lane ... throwing it back to a time when fans didn't care what their favorite artists believed in politically.
$hort says America was better when celebs voted, supported causes they cared about and didn't make politics part of their brand. That's not the world we live in now, and $hort says it's a big problem for hip hop and beyond.
Jill Zarin's controversial comments about Bad Bunny's halftime show have tons of people turning against her ... and one company with a former connection to the star is paying the price.
Here's the deal ... Zarin Fabrics -- a company owned and run by Zarin's stepson David -- has commenters on Yelp and Facebook accusing the company of racism.
Check it out ... commenters are posting one-star reviews and demanding they immediately ditch Jill. The problem ... the company's already addressed the controversy -- and Jill hasn't had a role with Zarin Fabrics for years.
1:40 PM PT --Cardi B is not backing down in this developing feud with DHS ... tweeting her response hours after their comment.
The Department of Homeland Security is clapping back at Cardi B's ICE diss ... by digging up her stripper past!
ICYMI ... Cardi opened her "Little Miss Drama Tour" in Palm Desert, California on Wednesday night and told fans she will throw hands if ICE shows up at her concerts. A DHS spokesperson went all out in their icy response, telling TMZ ... "As long she doesn’t drug and rob our agents, we’ll consider that an improvement over her past behavior."
If you're scratching your heads ... the "I Like It" hitmaker raised eyebrows in 2019 when an old clip resurfaced in which she admitted to drugging and stealing from men when she was an exotic dancer. Specifically, she said she would bring clients to hotel rooms in order to "drug them up" and then rob them.
President Trump's White House is ripping Rep. Ilhan Omar after she seemingly called for him to be executed for allegedly being a pedophile.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson tells TMZ ... "It should deeply concern every single American that Congresswoman Omar is spreading such egregious lies and calling for the execution of President Trump, who has already survived two assassination attempts."
The response comes after the Democratic Congresswoman from Minnesota posted on social media, "The leader of the Pedophile Protection Party is trying to deflect attention from his name being all over the Epstein files. At least in Somalia they execute pedophiles not elect them."
Cardi B is pulling no punches when it comes to ICE ... telling fans they’d better be ready to throw down if agents pop up at her shows.
The rapper didn't mince words Wednesday during the opening night of her "Little Miss Drama Tour" in Palm Desert, California. At one point, she climbed onto an elevated platform while singing “La Cucaracha" ... then scanned the crowd and asked if there were any Guatemalans or Mexicans in the audience.
Ukraine skeleton star Vladyslav Heraskevych won’t be sliding for Olympic gold this year ... because officials have benched him over a helmet honoring Ukrainian athletes killed in the war -- and now the decision is sparking a global firestorm.
The Ukrainian Olympian -- widely seen as a legit medal threat -- was disqualified from competing after refusing to ditch a custom helmet featuring tributes to more than 20 fallen Ukrainian athletes and coaches who died during Russia’s invasion.
Sen. Raphael Warnock says there's no such thing as too much celebrity support ... even if some folks think Hollywood's star-spangled backing of Kamala Harris did her no favors at the ballot box.
We got the Democratic Senator from Georgia at the Hart Building in Washington, D.C. ... and our producer asked him if there's a delicate balance when it comes to celebrity endorsements.
Sen. Warnock says he's happy for any celeb support he receives, because he's a man of the people, and celebs are people too ... and he explains why he's happy to work with folks like Usher.
Michelle Obama is dishing out relationship advice ... and she says couples need to slow play a lot of things ... like moving in together.
The former First Lady shared her opinion on couples who move in early on her podcast with her brother, Craig Robinson, "IMO," saying it's better to wait to make sure they're a good fit.
Michelle says love takes time and people need to figure out for sure who the other person is before taking a big step like moving under the same roof ... and it sounds like she thinks love at first sight is a rare occurrence.
President Donald Trump and his party might hate Somalia ... but, at least Somalia executes pedophiles there instead of electing them -- so says Rep. Ilhan Omar.
The Democratic Congresswoman from Minnesota took to social media, apparently to express her frustration with POTUS, after Trump badmouthed the country where she was born in a Tuesday night Fox Business interview ... in which he claimed Somali immigrants are damaging the state.
Omar -- who moved to the U.S. at 12 years old -- posted on her X account ... "The leader of the Pedophile Protection Party is trying to deflect attention from his name being all over the Epstein files. At least in Somalia they execute pedophiles not elect them." Her account has more than 2.7 million followers.
Joe Rogan got an unwanted invitation to meet with Jeffrey Epstein ... but the popular podcaster quickly turned it down, saying, "B*tch, are you high?"
On Tuesday, Rogan was chatting with Cheryl Hines on an episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience" when he brought up that he once interviewed Lawrence Krauss -- a theoretical physicist -- and Epstein's name crawled into their convo.
According to Rogan, Krauss spoke with Epstein about potentially meeting Rogan in a 2017 email exchange, which wound up in the Epstein Files. Epstein wrote that he listened to Rogan's discussion with Krauss and found the podcaster to be "funny." The late pedophile then asked Krauss to set up an intro with Rogan.
3:35 PM PT -- A spokesperson for Miss America refutes Kayleigh's claim, telling TMZ ... "Just to clarify. She did NOT lose her crown. She retained her crown. She simply did not go forward because she refused to sign the contract every other contestant signed. This was just one of numerous lies by her."
Beauty pageant winner Kayleigh Bush used to admire Miss America, but now she's ripping the organization for being unable to define what a woman is ... along with disagreements over trans women, which led to her being stripped of her crown.
We got Kayleigh on Capitol Hill and our photog asked her about her beef with Miss America ... and she explained how some controversial language in her Miss America contract led to a falling out.
Kayleigh was crowned Miss North Florida in September 2024, but two months later, she was stripped of her crown ... because she refused to sign a contract with Miss America that she says went against her beliefs ... namely, that women also include biological males who undergo transgender reassignment surgery.
The chaos and controversy surrounding Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime performance did NOT hurt the viewership numbers -- 128.2 million people tuned in to watch!
The numbers for the "DtMF" singer were announced by NBC on Tuesday, confirming that fans had their TVs stuck on the Super Bowl during halftime to watch Bad Bunny do his thing.
The performance didn't lack star power ... with special guests like Cardi B, Lady Gaga, and Ricky Martin as part of the show.
Despite the strong numbers, it wasn't the most-watched halftime show ever. By comparison, last year's halftime performance with Kendrick Lamar drew a historic 133.5 million viewers across TV and digital platforms.
Mike Epps went too far ... according to his own take on an off-color joke he told at Nicki Minaj's expense.
The comedian apologized to the "Super Bass" rapper after footage from a recent stand-up set went viral. In the clip, he ribs Nicki about her newfound MAGA obsession, joking she had a "train ran on her by Donald Trump and them."
Mike Epps was recently spotted roasting Nicki Minaj during his stop in Louisville, Kentucky, on the “We Them Ones Tour.” pic.twitter.com/BxOTRmSvcf
Now, in a video uploaded to Instagram, he's backtracking on the comments, saying, “Sometimes I get on that stage, and I have a little drink, and I go wild ... I’m non-filtered. Just wanted to apologize.”
Team USA curler Rich Ruohonen, a native Minnesotan, went in on ICE at the Winter Olympics ... calling out immigration officials for what he says is illegal and unjust behavior.
Ruohonen -- who is an attorney by day -- didn't hold back when meeting with the media in Italy, calling out the Department of Homeland Security agency for what he says is aggressive enforcement.
"First of all, I'd like to say I'm proud to be here to represent Team USA, and to represent our country, but we'd be remiss if we didn't at least mention what's going on in Minnesota and what a tough time it's been for everybody," Ruohonen said.
