WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� A person has been arrested in connection with vandalism at on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announced Friday.
Pirro announced on X that her office was filing two felony charges against Melissa L. Farris. Pirro said the felony charges are 鈥淒epredation Against Property of the United States and Destruction of Veterans鈥� Memorials.鈥� The offenses carry penalties of up to 10 years in prison.
On Thursday, the words 鈥淐lean hands dirty $鈥� were found painted on the monument and bubbles filled a fountain.
鈥淰andalizing our World War II Memorial is a despicable attack on a sacred monument honoring the Americans who fought and died for our freedom. Those Americans include my father and grandfather,鈥� Pirro wrote.
A woman identified on her Facebook page as Melissa Lovewell posted a video Thursday in which she is seen taking cans of spray paint from her bag and then painting the monument.
鈥淚 will wait here to be arrested for spraying our veterans鈥� fountain,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t was me, I鈥檓 doing it, it鈥檚 on camera.”
In a video posted Friday, the woman, who in a separate post said she had been in Washington for three weeks, said she was turning herself in.
The arrest warrant filed in the case indicated that witnesses took pictures of the vandalism occurring, which were circulated among U.S. Park Police officers.
One officer recognized the suspect as someone they arrested Aug. 10 鈥渇or unlawfully camping on federal property鈥� just blocks away. She livestreamed that arrest, the warrant said.
The suspect was identified by her Kentucky driver’s license as Melissa L. Farris, of Elizabethtown, Kentucky.
Farris was expected to be arraigned Friday. The Public Defender鈥檚 office said she was not yet listed in the system and had not been assigned an attorney.
The incident sparked harsh rebukes from both Pirro and President Donald Trump and comes after the president blamed damage to the nearby on vandals, without providing evidence. That case prompted charges against multiple people which were dropped when Pirro said evidence showed the damage came from botched repairs after Trump’s renovation at the site.
鈥淥ur beautiful World War II Memorial was just hit by Spray Painting Vandals,鈥� Trump said on Friday on his Truth Social site. 鈥淔irst the Reflecting Pool, now this.鈥�
The Interior Department said that the U.S. Park Police were on the scene following the Thursday vandalism and an investigation was ongoing. “The public should know we will find the person responsible for this disgusting act,鈥� the department said.
The Friends of the National World War II Memorial, a nonprofit organization that helps maintain the site, said: 鈥淭here are many places in our country for expression, debate, and disagreement. A national memorial honoring those who served and those who never returned home should never be used as a canvas for vandalism.鈥�
The Veterans of Foreign Wars called the vandalism 鈥渁n act of profound disrespect, a slap in the face to the veterans who served and sacrificed and to the families who carried that burden at home.鈥�
in late July with deliberately damaging , but the Justice Department later moved to dismiss that case, saying evidence prosecutors had received refuted the idea that vandals were to blame.
Trump sharply criticized that damage to the Reflecting Pool was the result of shoddy construction and not the work of vandals, as he claimed.
The case dismissal was an embarrassing setback for a Justice Department that had previously echoed Trump鈥檚 claims and billed the prosecution as accountability for damage at a Washington landmark, a pet project of Trump. Pirro鈥檚 decision to drop the case was also a rare moment during Trump鈥檚 second term of an aide or political appointee openly defying him.
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