Minaj, born Onika Tanya Maraj in Trinidad and Tobago in 1982, said in 2024 that she was “not a citizen of America,” though she has lived primarily in the U.S. since she was five. In recent months, Minaj has drawn criticism for praising President Donald Trump and embracing conservative politics, as well as for her family ties, including husband Kevin Petty, a registered sex offender, and brother Jelani Maraj, who was sentenced in 2020 to 25 years to life in prison for raping an 11-year-old girl.

“You have one family member who is a sex offender, the other family member… is reportedly a pedophile. And you have the nerve to talk about me?” Lemon said in his video. “Get a life, stop being a pick-me. You are a pick me. And I [choose] not to pick you, and so should Black people and so should gay people, [who] shouldn’t buy your music. Clock that.”

The online feud between Lemon and Minaj comes as the ex-CNN anchor is facing mounting scrutiny from the Trump administration over his coverage of the St. Paul protest. On Monday, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon said the Justice Department “will pursue charges” related to the demonstration, explicitly calling out Lemon in an interview on conservative influencer Benny Johnson’s podcast, The Benny Show.

“Don Lemon himself has come out and said he knew exactly what was going to happen inside that facility,” Dhillon said. “He went into the facility, and then he began — quote, unquote — ‘committing journalism,’ as if that’s sort of a shield from being a part, an embedded part, of a criminal conspiracy. It isn’t.”

Dhillon didn't confirm whether charges would be brought against Lemon personally, saying the department was still “putting the facts together." She also raised the possibility of invoking the federal FACE Act or the Enforcement Act of 1871, also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act.

In a statement, Lemon said he was being targeted by the DOJ.

“It’s notable that I’ve been cast as the face of a protest I was covering as a journalist — especially since I wasn’t the only reporter there,” he said. “That framing is telling.”

Lemon added that he stood by his reporting, arguing that the focus should remain on the death of Renee Nicole Good, the woman fatally shot by an ICE officer earlier this month.

“If this much time and energy is going to be spent manufacturing outrage,” he said, “it would be far better used investigating” her killing.

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