Jan. 6 Insurrectionist Travels In Kristi Noem’s Portland Motorcade

WASHINGTON – Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appears to have had in her entourage during her visit to Portland, Oregon, this week a Jan. 6, 2021, insurrectionist who days earlier had, according to a court document, told a friend, “We need a war bro… This country will never stop being soft until another big event happens.”

David Medina, whose criminal charges against him were dropped thanks to a pardon from President Donald Trump, has posted a series of videos on social media showing off his access to Noem, including one in which he appears to be riding in a van designated for “STAFF.”

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The DHS press office did not respond to a HuffPost request for comment, and Trump is now describing the protests that are occurring in Portland against his immigration raids as an “insurrection.”

Medina, now 36, was accompanying pro-Trump social media influencer Benny Johnson during Noem’s visit, during which he prayed with Noem prior to a discussion she held with federal immigration enforcement agents and visited a rooftop to view the surrounding neighborhood. He even had the opportunity to ask Noem a question.

“I’m down here, in downtown Portland, the federal courthouse where I was arraigned for January 6, for the political persecution. And now I’m riding, thanks to Benny Johnson, by the way, with Secretary Noem’s convoy,” Medina says in one video.

It is unclear from the videos whether Noem is aware of who Medina is. Medina could not be reached for comment.

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Medina in 2024 was charged by federal prosecutors in the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol that was stoked by Trump by weeks of lies that the 2020 election had been stolen from him, and finally by an incendiary speech on Jan. 6 in which he urged his thousands of assembled followers to march on the Capitol and told them they would lose their country if they did not “fight like hell.”

Video taken by a journalist at the Capitol that day shows Medina stating: “We were normal, good, law-abiding citizens and you guys [the government] did this to us. We want our country back.”

Medina had faced one felony charge for obstructing an official proceeding and several misdemeanors. According to a court filing, Medina tried to block the congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden as the next president by breaking into the Capitol. While he was there, he also vandalized the nameplate over then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office.

The Jan. 6 Capitol assault was the last stage of Trump’s coup attempt to cling to power despite having lost the November 2020 election by 7 million votes.

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Trump pardoned more than 1,500 of his supporters on his first day back in office, including some 400 who had assaulted police officers on Jan. 6. A total of 140 officers were injured that day. One died hours later, and four more died by suicide in the coming weeks.

Since then, the insurrectionists who helped Trump carry out his coup have become heroes within the GOP. Trump’s Justice Department even employs one.

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