Three family members assaulted a journalist who writes for a conservative organization during a protest against immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday.
Christopher and DeYanna Ostroushko and their daughter, Paige, were each charged by a federal grand jury with one count of assault. The indictment additionally charges Christopher and Paige each with one count of interfering with a federally protected activity.
Christopher Ostroushko also faces state charges of misdemeanor assault, according to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office.
Attorneys for the Ostroushkos said they will mount a strong defense, emphasizing that an indictment doesn’t mean the family has been convicted of any crime.
Community members have continued to protest in opposition to immigration enforcement efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration in the weeks since federal officers’ presence in the Twin Cities was dramatically scaled back. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has used the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building at Fort Snelling as a short-term holding facility, and the area out front has become a hub of anti-ICE activity.
Widely shared video taken by Turning Point USA contributor Savanah Hernandez outside the Whipple building on April 11 begins with Paige blowing a whistle close to Hernandez’s face. Video from other vantage points shows Hernandez with her hand protecting her face, sometimes pushing back against Paige. The two then tussle.
Hernandez says, “Get away from me.”
Paige pushes Hernandez, who falls back against a fence.
In the moments after, DeYanna and Christopher separately confront Hernandez, as does Paige again.
Christopher Ostroushko “forcefully shoved the victim in the back, head first to the ground,” the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said in its statement. It also said there was insufficient evidence to bring state charges against the others involved.
Throughout, others on the scene tried to de-escalate and separate them.
After the April 11 incident, Hernandez said her glasses were broken, she was concussed with a sore neck and back, and her legs were scraped, according to posts on the social platform X. She wrote that she was talking with police about pressing charges.
James Cook, an attorney representing the family, said the videos that have circulated don’t show everything, and he believes the family will be able to provide a “vigorous defense.”
“We think that there’s a lot of things in the videos that provide a means to exonerate,” he said.
The family was regular protesters at the Whipple building to provide “a voice and a demonstration against Metro Surge,” Cook said. He added the Ostroushkos have since been threatened online, and DeYanna and Christopher have both lost their jobs.
“They wish they could turn back the clock,” Cook said. “They wish that things didn’t turn out how they did.”
The Ostroushkos were summoned to appear before a federal judge on May 12.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement Wednesday that the Department of Justice will always “punish unhinged acts of political violence.”
“Hernandez was allegedly surrounded, physically assaulted, and shoved to the ground — simply because she was identified by the defendants as a conservative journalist,” Blanche said. “That is NOT ‘peaceful protest.’”
Hernandez said in a post that she was “incredibly grateful to see our justice system at work.” Hernandez did not immediately reply to a request for comment via email or direct message.