Climate activists have been convicted of a red-powder attack on the US Constitution
The couple of climate activists who vandalized the National Archives Rotunda back in February when they dumped red powder on the grounds protecting the US Constitution have met their end.
Donald Zepeda, 35, from Maryland, and Jackson Green, 27, from Utah, were sentenced to 24 months in prison and 18 months respectively, on February 14, 2024, for attacking the US Constitution that was kept at the National Archives in Washington. DCUS Attorney Matthew M. Graves and FBI Acting Special Agent in Charge David Geist of the Washington Field Office Criminal and Cyber Division announced on Monday.
Zepeda pleaded guilty on August 15 to vandalism by throwing red powder on a case containing the US Constitution in the Rotunda of the Archives building.
Cleanup costs after the stunt, which was intended to draw attention to climate change, exceeded $58,000, officials said.
NATIONAL NEWS ROTUNDA WAS PUSHED AFTER CLIMATE ACTIVISTS DENOUNCE PINK PUSH ON HISTORY OF CONSTITUTION HOLDER.
Donald Zepeda, 35, of Maryland, and Jackson Green, 27, of Utah, were sentenced in the US District Court to 24 months in prison and 18 months respectively for the attack on the US Constitution that was preserved in the National Archives on February 14, 2024. Washington DC (Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia)
The vandalism also closed the Rotunda for four days, preventing students, tourists and DC residents from visiting.
Green also pleaded guilty on August 13 to vandalism for the red powder attack on the US Constitution and, in addition, pleaded guilty to one count of damaging an exhibit at the National Gallery of Art for his vandalism on Nov. 14, 2023, for the Black Civil War, Augustus Saint-Gaudens Shaw 54th Regiment Memorial (1900).
Zepeda and Green were also ordered to serve 24 months of supervised release and each pay $58,600 in restitution. They were also ordered to do community service, which should include cleaning documents. Both are banned from DC and from all museums across the US
PORTRAIT OF KING CHARLES III DESTROYED BY ANIMAL RIGHTS PUBLISHERS, VIDEO SHOWS
Green (left) and Zepeda (right) pose for a photo on February 14, 2024, after dropping red powder on a box depicting the US Constitution at the National Archives. (Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia)
Green was charged with assaulting the Shaw Memorial just 13 days before he joined Zepeda in destroying the archives.
According to court documents, Zepeda and Green are members of Declare Emergency, an activist group that claims to raise awareness about climate change by being involved in various criminal cases, mostly in DC.
Zepeda (left) and Green (right) were photographed covered in red powder after their attack on the US Constitution at the National Historic Site in Washington DC. (Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia)
During the Valentine’s day stunt, the group also posted photos of the Rotunda, writing: “We don’t want the end of civilization, but that’s the way we are right now.”
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“Declare Emergency non-violent civil disobedience is love practiced every day, not just on Valentine’s Day,” the group previously wrote.
The group issued a statement following the sentence, saying it expected the sentence to be “severe.”
“Although there is no evidence that any damage has been done, both Green and Zepeda have been charged with destroying government property,” the group wrote in a statement on their website. “The powder of tempera paint was chosen because it would not harm, and indeed no powder entered the case.”
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