U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced felony charges against a Kentucky woman accused of spray-painting the World War II Memorial and dumping soap into its fountain, a case that carries up to ten years in prison.

Pirro's office filed two federal charges against Melissa L. Farris, 41, of Elizabethtown, Kentucky: depredation against property of the United States and destruction of a veterans' memorial. Farris is in custody. Each count carries a maximum sentence of ten years behind bars, ABC News reported.

The vandalism struck the Atlantic pavilion of the WWII Memorial on the National Mall last Thursday. Red paint covered the pavilion's walls and floor. Someone spray-painted the words "Clean hands dirty $" on the monument's stone and poured bubble soap into the fountain, filling it with suds and potentially damaging the mechanical pumps underneath.

The memorial had just finished a $3 million, four-month renovation in May. Three months later, it was defaced.

A witness with a camera led Park Police straight to the suspect

Federal court filings lay out how investigators identified Farris within hours. An unnamed witness at the memorial photographed a woman in the apparent act of spray-painting the monument before the woman fled. The witness handed those images to law enforcement on site.

A U.S. Park Police officer recognized the woman in the photographs. He had arrested Farris just days earlier, on August 10, for unlawfully camping on federal property a few blocks from the memorial.

Farris did not make investigators work hard for corroboration. Authorities found social media postings under a pseudonym on Facebook, including a livestream video recorded before the alleged vandalism and a second video in which she appeared to admit to the act. In the livestream, AP News reported, Farris said she would wait at the scene to be arrested.

Per court records, Farris said in one video:

"Why the [expletive] didn't I get arrested? You don't think that's weird..."

She also told viewers she had done it to "push my whistleblower case into the courtroom," the New York Post reported. No further details about any such case appeared in the charging documents.

Farris turned herself in at federal district court and was taken into custody.

Pirro called the vandalism 'a despicable attack' on a monument honoring the war dead

Pirro announced the charges on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, from the D.C. U.S. Attorney's official account. Her post left no ambiguity about how her office viewed the case.

Pirro wrote:

"Vandalizing 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."

She added, per Breitbart: "We will not tolerate this kind of criminal activism, and we will ensure that anyone who desecrates a veterans' memorial is held fully accountable."

The Department of the Interior issued its own statement. A spokesperson said the memorial "is a sacred place to honor the service of our members of the Armed Forces and the over 400,000 Americans who gave the ultimate sacrifice in WWII," calling the vandalism "an utter disgrace" that "will not be tolerated."

Friends of the World War II Memorial, a preservation group, released a statement as well:

"There 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."

Trump weighed in hours after the vandalism, and the National Guard followed

President Trump posted on social media Thursday, shortly after news of the damage broke. "Our beautiful World War II Memorial was just hit by Spray Painting Vandals," he wrote. "THERE CAN BE NO GREATER INSULT TO THOSE AMERICAN HEROES WHO DIED IN WORLD WAR II."

By the next morning, National Guard troops were patrolling the memorial grounds.

The swift prosecution carries political weight for Pirro beyond the specifics of this case. Earlier this year, Trump publicly broke with Pirro after her office dropped a felony charge against former Olympic canoeist David Hearn in a separate vandalism case involving the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Trump said at the time that Pirro had "choked" and "folded like an umbrella," and the episode raised open questions about her future in the role.

Reports at the time suggested Pirro's job was in doubt after the Reflecting Pool dispute. The Farris case gave her an opportunity to demonstrate that monument vandalism in the nation's capital would draw a forceful federal response, and she took it.

Pirro has handled several high-profile matters as D.C.'s top federal prosecutor, including pursuing the death penalty in the killing of Israeli Embassy staffers. She has also been involved in the prosecution stemming from the White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting case.

Farris had been arrested on federal property four days before the alleged vandalism

The timeline raises a straightforward question. Farris was picked up on August 10 for unlawfully camping on federal land just blocks from the WWII Memorial. Four days later, she allegedly returned to the same stretch of the National Mall and defaced one of the country's most prominent war memorials, then posted video of it online and expressed surprise that no one stopped her.

Her attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Washington Examiner noted that the bubble soap poured into the fountain risked damage to the mechanical pumps, a concern that goes beyond cosmetic cleanup, particularly given the memorial's recent multimillion-dollar restoration.

More than 400,000 Americans died in World War II. The memorial on the National Mall exists for one reason: so the country never forgets what they gave. Anyone who treats it as a prop for a personal grievance deserves every day of whatever sentence a federal judge hands down.