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The FBI today charged a Sherwood man, David A. Medina, for a variety of alleged crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The most serious charge: obstruction of an official proceeding, which is a felony.
The charges against Medina, a podcaster and sometime GOP political consultant who operated the Instagram page oregonians4trump, were filed Feb. 16 in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. They also include “destruction of government property, entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.” All of those crimes are misdemeanors.
The indictment, which includes screen captures of a man identified as Medina in the Capitol wearing a black shirt with an outline of a map of Oregon on it, says that after entering the building, Medina’s actions were captured on video.
For example, the FBI said in a statement that Medina appears to have broken a prominent wooden sign in the Capitol. Video shows the man who appears to be Medina “slamming a wooden sign affixed above the Speaker’s office, which read ‘Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi,” in an attempt to break it,” the statement says. “Medina is then seen standing next to rioters who are holding up pieces of the shattered wooden sign with partial lettering visible, spelling ‘of the House’ on the top line, and ‘Nancy P’ on the lower line.”
The indictment notes that Medina, also “participated in a storm-the-capital event on December 21, 2020, at the Oregon State Capitol Building in Salem, Oregon. Medina is shown in CCTV footage of that incident when the crowd confronted police.” (Oregon Public Broadcasting first reported in 2021 on Medina’s alleged actions in two Capitol raids.)
The indictment also includes text messages between Medina and an unidentified friend. In one of them dated Dec. 1, 2020, Medina wrote: “With what’s going on with governor’s [sic] telling us who we can and can’t have in our houses we should be storming the capitol building and our governor’s houses armed and ready to take over.”
Medina also expressed some frustration with then-President Donald Trump that day, writing, “I blame Trump for some of this. Sitting by and letting the governor’s [sic] shut down their states and steal the election. He was elected to stop this shit and now it’s worse than ever.”
He also commented on the national situation, writing on Dec. 12, 2020, “The proud boys are beating the fuck out of BLM right now in DC so that kind of gives me hope.”
The FBI first contacted Medina for an in-person interview March 1, 2021. At the time, according to the indictment, he tried to downplay his actions on Jan. 6, but more recently, he has joked about his participation on social media. On Aug. 23, 2023, somebody sent him a screen capture showing him in the Capitol on Jan. 6 with the question, “lol, this you, David?”
“Yes it is,” Medina replied. “#FBI’sFavoriteCitizen.”
Medina was arrested today in Portland. His attorney could not immediately be reached for comment. On a crowdfunding site, he has begun collecting donations for his legal defense.