Capitol Video Contradicts Florida Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna's Assault Accusation Against Medea Benjamin

Anna Paulina Luna left a House hearing on June 3 and entered a Capitol hallway where a brief exchange with Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin later became the subject of a widely viewed video.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio had just completed testimony before a House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee when Luna spent part of her questioning focused on Code Pink and alleged links between the antiwar organization and the Chinese Communist Party.

Medea Benjamin walked behind Luna into the hallway shortly afterward. According to Mediaite, Luna later asserted that Benjamin struck her arm and urged House Speaker Mike Johnson to block Code Pink from future access to House sessions.

Video released afterward showed Benjamin walking alongside Luna while attempting to speak with her. During the exchange, Benjamin's hand briefly touched Luna near the elbow before Luna stopped, turned, and warned that law enforcement assigned to the Capitol would be contacted.

Officers responsible for security at the Capitol reviewed the hallway video and did not move forward with criminal charges. That decision shifted focus toward what viewers could observe in the recording rather than competing descriptions of the encounter.

Benjamin denied wrongdoing and directed viewers toward the video. The veteran antiwar activist maintained that the brief contact shown on screen did not match Luna's account of what occurred.

Before the hallway exchange, Luna and Code Pink occupied opposite sides of foreign policy battles. Luna's path to Congress included work as a cocktail waitress at a strip club before entering politics in Florida, while Benjamin became known through antiwar demonstrations and public challenges directed at elected officials over military action and foreign policy.

Capitol corridors have served as the backdrop for heated exchanges between activists and lawmakers for decades, though few produce video that receives such widespread public examination afterward.

Johnson had not publicly addressed Luna's request at the time. A few seconds inside a Capitol hallway became a nationally viewed political episode because the public could examine the same video reviewed by security personnel.