U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro called a homeless woman's spray-painting of the World War II Memorial "criminal activism," though the suspect's videos show her standing in a fountain begging to be rescued.
Melissa Farris, 41, of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, was charged Friday with two federal felonies after allegedly spray-painting the memorial's Atlantic Theatre Pavilion on Aug. 13.
The Justice Department painted her as a deliberate political actor, but her own public videos told a different story.
"She is a mentally ill homeless person who believes she is being gang stalked by the Federal Government," D.C. activist Brianne Chapman wrote on X Friday. "A dime a dozen on the streets of DC unfortunately."
Pirro, who has been under fire from President Donald Trump for dropping a Reflecting Pool vandalism case, painted a different picture in her public remarks.
"Defacing the World War II Memorial is a disgusting act and an insult to the Americans who fought and died for our country," Pirro said in a news release. "We will not tolerate this kind of criminal activism."
Investigators say they reviewed Farris's public social media accounts before filing charges — and those accounts show what the press release left out.
Park Police arrested Farris on Aug. 10, three days before the alleged vandalism, for unlawfully camping on federal property a few blocks from the memorial, according to the criminal complaint.
Two days before the alleged vandalism, Farris was sheltering inside a Wawa convenience store as a storm raged outside, according to a video transcript reviewed by Raw Story.
"If you … were homeless," she said in the video, "where would you go? For that entire homeless community, where do they go?"
On Facebook, Newsweek reported, Farris described herself as a "Pirate Captain" and wrote that she was "panhandling America for America Cash at me so I don't starve!"
The day before the alleged vandalism, she posted another video in which she described federal marshals using disguises to follow her.
"When you're running from US marshals that use hair and makeup to stalk you," she said in the Aug. 12 video, "you pick up some of their tricks."
The next day, she stood in the memorial's foam-filled fountain, spray can in hand, waiting.
"I was just allowed to deface Federal s— property, and nobody batted an eye, and that is very strange," she said, according to WJLA. "So I imagine the police will be coming for me soon and I would like to have it recorded for my own safety."
Pirro's office selected a different quote for the press release — one aimed at establishing that Farris knew what she was doing.
"I am cognitively aware and executively (sic) of the choices I am making…" Farris said in a pre-vandalism video, according to the press release. "Our government needs to be accountable for their choices too."
The arrest comes as Pirro is navigating her own credibility crisis. Trump called her out last week, saying she "folded like an umbrella" after dropping charges against an Olympian in the nearby Reflecting Pool case — charges her own office later admitted were built on faulty evidence.
"Where do these animals come from???" Trump wrote on Truth Social about the memorial vandalism.
Farris turned herself in Friday morning, crying, outside the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, livestreaming on Facebook before walking in, according to CBS News. She faces up to 10 years in prison, according to the complaint.
