Climate activists hit with felony charges for defacing US Constitution's display case
Two left-wing climate activists have been hit with felony charges after defacing the U.S. Constitution's display case.
The Department of Justice announced on Friday that Donald Zepeda of Maryland and Jackson Green of Utah have been charged with felony destruction of government property following a climate change stunt that involved dumping red powder on the encasement protecting the U.S. Constitution in the National Archives Rotunda.
"The National Archives Rotunda is the sanctuary for our nation's founding documents," Dr. Colleen Shogan, Archivist of the United States, said in a statement following the incident. "They are here for all Americans to view and understand the principles of our nation. We take such vandalism very seriously and we will insist that the perpetrators be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
The duo's vandalism, which occurred on February 14, immediately led to the evacuation of the rotunda. A video shot by a supporter shows the pair smothered in the red powder, which also appeared strewn across the Constitution's protective display case.
Zepeda and Green appeared to be linked to the left-wing climate activist group Declare Emergency, which demands that President Biden "declare a formal state of climate emergency and begin [to] make full use of his executive authority to save this country from collapse."
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"We don't want the end of civilization but that's the path we're currently on. Declare Emergency's nonviolent civil disobedience is love in action everyday, not just on Valentine's Day," the group posted on social media after the incident.
In its press release, the Department of Justice said that Zepeda and Green's stunt had caused more than $50,000 in damage.
The rotunda closed for four days.