Daniel Medina is a senior writer for CNN Investigates in New York City. He has a track record of breaking stories on major national news events and has both broadcast and digital experience. His work has appeared on NBC Nightly News, Al Jazeera English, The Guardian, and The Intercept, among others.

His first investigation at CNN, published in August 2021, looked at the case of Mohammed al-Qahtani, a severely mentally ill Guantanamo Bay detainee who the U.S. government publicly admitted torturing and who had spent more than two decades behind bars – 14 years without charge. The Biden administration released al-Qahtani in March 2022.

Before joining CNN in 2021, Medina was a Livingston Award finalist for an investigation about the plight of undocumented adoptees in the United States who were adopted by American citizens abroad as children but found out as adults that they faced possible deportation under U.S. immigration law. In December 2019, he traveled to Beirut to investigate the Lebanese army’s crackdown on that nation’s protest movement. There, he interviewed former detainees who alleged torture at the hands of the Lebanese army – a major beneficiary of U.S. security aid.

Medina grew up in the Washington, D.C. area and speaks fluent Spanish. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Miami and Master’s degrees in journalism and international affairs from Columbia University.