JUST IN: Man Indicted On Federal Charges After Attack On JD Vance’s Home

The 26-year-old man accused of vandalizing Vice President JD Vance’s Cincinnati home was indicted Wednesday on a slate of federal charges.

William DeFoor was charged with an act of physical violence in a restricted building or grounds, willful injury or depredation of U.S. property, and assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers or employees.

A federal judge ordered DeFoor to remain behind bars while receiving psychiatric care.

At a detention hearing Tuesday, federal prosecutors argued DeFoor posed a continued danger and should stay in jail as the case moves forward. His attorney pushed for his release to a psychiatric hospital instead.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Muncy told the court the attack was deliberate and targeted. “His intended target was the vice president of the United States,” Muncy said.

Muncy said DeFoor walked more than an hour and a half from his parents’ Hyde Park home to Vance’s residence, carrying a backpack with a hammer that he allegedly used to smash multiple windows. She noted that DeFoor passed hundreds of homes along the way and did not vandalize any others.

William D. DeFoor mugshot

Prosecutors also cited writings found in a journal during a Secret Service search of DeFoor’s home. One passage read, in part, “Freedom is a cage and all the world is a stage,” and ended with the warning, “Now you will never see me again.” Prosecutors said the language raised serious red flags.

Defense attorney Paul Laufman urged the judge to view the case as a mental health crisis, not a political attack.

“I don’t think this is a political case,” Laufman said, calling DeFoor a “beautiful soul suffering from significant mental illness.”

However, DeFoor’s defense as an apolitical vandal took a hit after outlets found his Instagram account, on which he goes by “Julia DeFoor.” Conservatives have argued that the attack on Vance’s home may have been yet another instance of transgender violence.

Laufman asked that DeFoor be released to a psychiatric hospital with electronic monitoring. He pointed to DeFoor’s academic achievements, including a perfect ACT score and a full college scholarship, before schizophrenia emerged in early adulthood. He also argued that the government selectively focused on a single journal entry despite numerous writings.

U.S. District Judge Stephanie Bowman acknowledged DeFoor’s need for psychiatric treatment but said she was troubled by what she described as a pattern of escalating behavior. She cited an incident involving a broken window at a Hyde Park business in 2024 and the alleged attack on the vice president’s home.

Bowman ruled DeFoor must remain detained but ordered that he receive psychiatric care while in custody.

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