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Fox & Friends took issue with recently revealed texts between CNN anchor Don Lemon and actor Jussie Smollett.

The actor is currently on trial for faking a politically and racially charged attack as a means to draw attention to himself. Smollett testified during the trial that he texted with Lemon, a revelation breathlessly teased by Steve Doocy: “Why was CNN anchor Don Lemon texting Jussie Smollett about his alleged hate crime case?”

Todd Piro later reported the news, saying “The actor also revealing that CNN’s Don Lemon texting him allegedly relaying information that police did not believe Smollett’s account of what happened. Lemon telling viewers after the 2019 incident that he was in close contact with the actor.”

Piro also noted that “Don Lemon covered the case on his show last night but made no mention of the alleged contact he had with Smollett.”

“From a legal perspective did Don Lemon do anything wrong?” asked Ainsley Earhardt. “If you are trying to get an interview you might send a text, especially if you are acquaintances.”

“I don’t know about the legal perspective,” Piro answered. “But again this would go back to the whole CNN journalistic questions, should we be helping the people cover overtly like CNN does seemingly with Chris Cuomo and now Don Lemon.”

Yes, that’s a news guy on Fox & Friends throwing journalistic shade on

CNN by asking “should we be helping the people cover?” Of course, Chris Cuomo has been fired by CNN, and Lemon was texting with an acquaintance of his that was in the news, a fact of which, according to Fox News, he disclosed on air at the time of reporting?

First of all, texting a subject who is in the news is how a lot of reporting gets done. If an anchor is trying to prepare someone for an interview or get them on their show, it is entirely expected to exchange information about the story, which in this instance appears to be the fact that the police didn’t believe his story.

Later in the program, Fox Nation host Nancy Grace appeared to defend the CNN anchor. “Regarding the text from Don Lemon, not exactly breaking news,” she said, appearing to mock previous coverage. “I don’t think Lemon divulged anything that the rest of us didn’t already know that cops do not believe Smollett was a hate crime victim. It’s absurd.”

It’s not clear when Smollett and Lemon texted about this development in the story, but it was a widely believed conceit within roughly a week of the story breaking.

Watch above via Fox News.

Tags: Don Lemon, Jussie Smollett, Todd Piro