Arlington National Cemetery confirmed an “incident” with Trump campaign officials during a visit by former President Donald Trump on Monday that resulted in a formal report being filed after reports of an altercation with cemetery staff over photography and political activity. 

A defense official confirmed Wednesday to The Associated Press that Trump's campaign was warned not to take photos at Arlington ahead of the incident.

“Federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries, to include photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purposes, or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign,” the U.S. Army-managed cemetery said in a statement. “Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants. We can confirm there was an incident, and a report was filed.”

“To protect the identity of the individual involved, no further information about the incident is being released at this time,” the cemetery added.

The cemetery did not immediately clarify who they filed a report with, and U.S. Army Criminal Investigative Division assistant deputy director Mark Lunardi said in an email that they did not receive such a report. According to Department of Defense and Army policy, “Army CID would investigate any criminal allegation meeting identified thresholds which occurred at Arlington National Cemetery,” Lunardi wrote.

A spokesperson for Virginia’s Arlington County Police Department told Spectrum News that because the cemetery is federal property they don't have "primary jurisdiction" in criminal investigations and did not recieve a report regarding Monday's incident. 

The Trump campaign vehemently denied a physical and verbal altercation occurred after a cemetery official attempted to prevent campaign staff from using cameras in an area where recent U.S. casualties are buried, as first reported by NPR. The Trump campaign did not immediately reply to Spectrum News’ request for comment, but spokesperson Steven Cheung told NPR the claims were “defamatory” and that “the fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump's team during a very solemn ceremony,"

In a statement to the New York Times, Trump campaign senior advisor Chris LaCivita said the unnamed cemetery official was “a disgrace and does not deserve to represent the hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery.”

NPR reported, citing an anonymous source, an that when the cemetery official attempted to stop Trump staffers from entering the area, the official was subjected to verbal abuse and pushed aside. 

“This episode is pretty sad, when it’s all said and done. This is what we’ve come to expect from Donald Trump and his team,” Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler said on CNN on Wednesday. “He is also somebody who has a history of demeaning and degrading military service members, those who have given the ultimate sacrifice.”

Tyler referenced Trump’s recent comments arguing the civilian Presidential Medal of Freedom is “much better” than the Medal of Honor because the recipients of the military’s highest honor “either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets, or they’re dead.” He also pointed to comments Trump’s former White House Chief of Staff, retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, said the former president made, describing dead American service members as “suckers” and “losers.”

When asked about the incident while campaigning in Pennsylvania on Wednesday, Ohio Sen. JD Vance said Harris "can go to hell" over her administration's handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal and claimed that the media was manufacturing the story. 

“The altercation at Arlington Cemetery is the media creating a story where I really don’t think there is one,” said Vance, a Marine veteran. “There is verifiable evidence that the campaign was allowed to have a photographer there. They were invited to have a photographer there.”

Vance also noted that family members of service members killed in the August 2021 suicide bombing at an airport in Kabul, Afghanistan — Trump was at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday to mark the three-year anniversary of their killings — had invited Trump to be there and some later issued a statement of support.

“It is is amazing to me that you have apparently somebody at Arlington Cemetery, some staff member had a little disagreement with somebody and.. the media has turned this into a national news story,” Vance said, before calling Harris “disgraceful” and falsely claiming “there hasn’t been a single investigation” into the 2021 attack as the U.S. was conducting a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan after nearly 20 years. The Biden administration and Congress have conducted multiple investigations into the attack in the years since. 

“Kamala Harris is so asleep at the wheel that she won’t even do an investigation into what happened and she wants to yell at Donald Trump because he showed up?” Vance said. “She can go to hell.”

The suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, killed 13 American service members and more than 100 Afghans. On Monday, the former president laid wreaths in honor of service members killed that day alongside some of their family members and surviving comrades. 

The Republican presidential nominee and his cohort then visited graves in the cemetery’s Section 60, where dead service members from the United States’ 21st century wars are often buried. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox shared a picture on social media of Trump, veterans and military family members standing by the grave of Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, a Marine killed during the Kabul airport attack. Trump and several others in the photo are smiling and sporting a thumbs up.

Cox apologized on Wednesday after a photo of him with Trump and others at the cemetery was included in a fundraising email.

"This was not a campaign event and was never intended to be used by the campaign," Cox wrote on social media. "It did not go through the proper channels and should not have been sent. My campaign will be sending out an apology."

On social media on Tuesday night, Cheung responded to the NPR report and wrote “we were granted access to have a photographer there,” sharing a section of what he claimed to the New York Times was an email from Arlington National Cemetery staff giving the Trump campaign permission to bring a photographer and videographer. 

A video posted to Trump's TikTok account shows Trump participating in the wreath-laying ceremony and taking photos with family members in Section 60.

Trump himself shared a statement from two Marines who were wounded and family members of service members killed during the attack thanking him for visiting Section 60.

“On the three-year anniversary of the Abbey Gate bombing, the president and his team conducted themselves with nothing but the utmost respect and dignity for all of our service members, especially our beloved children,” the statement read. “We had given our approval for President Trump’s official videographer and photographer to attend the event, ensuring these sacred moments of remembrance were respectfully captured and so we can cherish these memories forever.”

But Arlington National Cemetery maintains that political activity, including photography for political use, is barred on the premises, even if family members approve.

“Filming or photographing will not be permitted if it conveys the impression that cemetery officials or any visitor or family member is endorsing any product, service or Organization,” according to a 2022 memo on media policy. “Additionally, ANC will not authorize any filming for partisan, political or fundraising purposes, in accordance with the Hatch Act.”