A woman has been arrested and charged with two felonies following the defacement of the World War Two memorial located in Washington, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro on Friday.
Writing on social media, Pirro stated that Melissa Farris faces charges of depredation against property of the United States and destruction of veterans’ memorials.
She noted these crimes carry potential sentences of up to 10 years in prison.
Federal authorities pledged to track down the culprit after the World War Two landmark was targeted with graffiti and foaming soap on Thursday.
Suds spilled from the monument’s fountain, while red and green paint was splattered across the site alongside the painted message “Clean hands Dirty $.”
Accompanying her post on X, Pirro shared pictures showing a woman who appears to hold a can near the red paint on the monument.
Further context regarding the origin of the photographs was not offered by Pirro, and the images could not be independently authenticated.
Requests for comment sent to Pirro’s office went unanswered, and contact could not be made with Farris.
President Donald Trump on Friday lashed out over the defaced National World War II Memorial, calling the unknown-at-the-time perpetrators “animals” and vowing that investigators were closing in.
Trump also lumped the incident together with the Reflecting Pool case, which Pirro had already declared was not vandalism at all.
“Our beautiful World War II Memorial was just hit by Spray Painting Vandals. THERE CAN BE NO GREATER INSULT TO THOSE AMERICAN HEROES WHO DIED IN WORLD WAR II,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“First the Reflecting Pool, now this. We are on their trail! Where do these animals come from???” he added.
The Friends of the National World War II Memorial said it was “deeply disturbed,” adding that “whatever the intent, defacing a place dedicated to the service and sacrifice of the World War II generation is unacceptable.”
Trump has spent months insisting that the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was vandalized despite his own Department of Justice claiming the opposite in court filings.
Last week, Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, asked the District of Columbia Superior Court to drop charges against David Hearn, a former Olympic paddler who had been facing 10 years in prison for touching a section of pool liner that had detached from the bottom.