Climate change activist gets 2 years in prison for dumping red powder on Constitution display

WASHINGTON — A climate change activist who dumped red powder on a case containing the original copy of the U.S. Constitution was sentenced on Friday to two years in prison for his role in the vandalism earlier this year at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson told Donald Zepeda that his attack on the display of the priceless document did nothing to advance his cause.

“You still think that was connected to the climate change problem, and I can't agree with that,” she said.

Zepeda, a leader of Declare Emergency, was charged with another member of the climate change awareness group. Jackson sentenced Zepeda’s co-defendant, Utah resident Jackson Green, on Tuesday to 18 months of prison.

Zepeda, 35, of Maryland, pleaded guilty in August to destruction of federal property. The Constitution itself was not damaged.

The judge said “eco-vandalism” doesn't benefit the environment and only gives climate change skeptics more reason to believe that activists like Zepeda are “just a bunch of crackpots.”

“It's just plain old vandalism,” she said.

The National Archives evacuated visitors after the attack and remained closed for four days to make repairs costing over $58,000. Prosecutors said the stunt frightened visitors who didn't know that the red substance was paint powder.

“Many undoubtedly feared that they were the subject of a chemical weapons attack, a phenomenon which was not uncommon in D.C. in the not-too-distant past,” a prosecutor wrote.

Prosecutors had recommended a four-year prison sentence for Zepeda, citing his roles in a string of similar stunts designed to call attention to climate change.

He was sentenced to two months in prison for burglarizing an oil facility in 2017. He spent a week in jail for pouring syrup and colored liquid on the steps of the Florida capitol building. He has repeatedly blocked roadways with other activists.

In April 2023, Zepeda helped plan and carry out climate action at the National Gallery of Art, where two other activists smeared paint on the exhibit of Edgar Degas' “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen" sculpture.

Months later in November 2023, Zepeda, Green and other members of Declare Emergency targeted the National Gallery of Art again. This time, Zepeda recorded Green painting the words “Honor Them” on the wall next to “The Shaw 54th Regiment Memorial,” a mural that commemorates one of the first Black regiments of the Civil War.

“He has been committing these very crimes his entire adult life. Indeed, he has made engaging in these types of offenses his profession,” a prosecutor wrote.

Defense attorney Stephen Brennwald said Zepeda was shocked to learn how much it cost to clean up the mess that he helped make.

“But he has come to accept that what he intended as a dramatic moment meant to shake the world awake from its climate slumber and stupor turned into something else completely,” the lawyer wrote.