The federal prosecution of the journalist Don Lemon took an unlikely turn on Tuesday.

Facing charges over his presence at a church protest challenging the immigration crackdown in Minnesota, Mr. Lemon has hired as one of his defense lawyers a veteran criminal litigator who, until just weeks ago, was helping lead the prosecutor’s office that has charged Mr. Lemon with felonies.

Joseph H. Thompson, a former senior federal prosecutor who resigned from the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota in mid-January over the Justice Department’s handling of the immigration operation, has joined Mr. Lemon’s defense team, according to a court filing.

Mr. Thompson’s appointment is the latest plot twist in a high-profile case that has been anomalous from the start. By representing the most prominent of nine defendants charged in the church protest case, Mr. Thompson will face off against a department that employed him for nearly 17 years. Mr. Thompson will work alongside Mr. Lemon’s lead defense lawyer, Abbe Lowell.

The government’s investigation began after Mr. Lemon, a former CNN anchor who now works as an independent journalist producing content for a YouTube show, accompanied protesters who disrupted the Sunday morning service at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minn., on Jan. 18. Demonstrators targeted the church because one of its pastors, David Easterwood, is a senior official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the state. Mr. Easterwood was not at the service.

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Mr. Thompson, who had been the second in command at the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota, resigned on Jan. 13 along with several colleagues after clashing with leaders at the Justice Department over its handling of the investigation into the killing of a Minneapolis woman, Renee Good, by an ICE agent.

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