The Volokh Conspiracy
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Republican Congressman's Staffer Prosecuted for Alleging Faking Attack on Herself, Including "Trump Whore" Written on Her Stomach
From the Justice Department's press release Wednesday:
Natalie Greene, 26, of Ocean City was charged with one count of conspiracy to convey false statements and hoaxes and one count of making false statements to federal law enforcement. On November 19, 2025, Greene made her initial appearance in federal court before U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth A. Pascal. Greene was released on a $200,000 unsecured bond and additional conditions, as set by the Court.
According to statements made in court and documents filed in the case:
Late at night on July 23, 2025, Greene's co-conspirator called 911 and reported that she and Greene had been attacked by three men when they were out walking on a trail at a nature preserve in Egg Harbor Township. According to the co-conspirator, during the attack, the men had called Greene by name and had specifically referenced her employment with Federal Official 1, an official whose identity is known to the Government.
When law enforcement officers located Greene, she was lying in a wooded area just off the trail, with her hands and feet bound together with black zip ties. Greene's shirt was pulled over her head and was also tied with a black zip tie. Greene had numerous lacerations on her face, neck, upper chest, and shoulder. The words "TRUMP WHORE" were written on her stomach and the words "[Federal Official 1] IS RACIST" were written on her back. [Press accounts state that the words written were that Van Drew is racist. -EV] Greene was crying and yelling that one of her alleged attackers had a gun.
Greene told police officers that one or more of the men who allegedly attacked her said he had a gun and threatened to shoot her. Greene also said that one or more of the attackers had held her down and restrained her movement, cutting her and writing on her body. A couple days later, after receiving medical treatment for her lacerations, Greene again described her alleged attack to law enforcement officers, including an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The investigation revealed that Greene had not, in fact, been attacked by three men at gunpoint on July 23. Instead, Greene had paid a body modification/scarification artist to deliberately cut the lacerations on her face, neck, upper chest, and shoulder, based on a pattern that she had provided beforehand. Law enforcement officers recovered black zip ties in Greene's car on the night of the alleged attack, similar to the zip ties that had been used to bind Greene's arms and feet. Also, the investigation revealed that, two days prior to the alleged attack, the cellphone of Greene's co-conspirator had been used to search "zip ties near me."
You can find more details in the Criminal Complaint, as well as in many news accounts (including this one from Fox News [Greg Norman]). An excerpt:
Individual 1 [the body modification artist] provided the investigators with photos of Greene that he took after the scarification had been completed on the afternoon of July 23, 2025, in his studio in Pennsylvania. The photos from Individual 1 reflect that the cuts made to Greene's skin by Individual 1, at Greene's request, follow the exact same pattern as the lacerations that were observed on Greene when she was found lying on the ground in the Egg Harbor Township Nature Reserve, as well as the lacerations that were observed on Greene and photographed at Hospital-1 later the same evening. The photo comparison is as follows:
UPDATE: I had neglected to mention that Greene "began Rutgers law school last year but is no longer enrolled there, a spokesperson for the college told The [N.Y.] Post."
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She ought to plead insanity. At least Jussie Smollett had the sense to not physically mutilate himself.
I cannot imagine how deranged someone must be to do this to themself.
I can.
A lot of young women cut themselves as a means to control their lives. It's part of a mental illness, it's a real problem in higher ed -- I don't understand it but I've had to deal with it.
Now someone else doing it as a profession -- wow...
It’s like some Dr Ed fantasy brought to life.
NOT FUNNY!
I was in the middle of one of these situations -- 25 years ago now.
A fellow graduate student, whom I knew personally as she had been my neighbor, had been in Bosnia in the '90s and had a Humvee roll over on her -- veteran with psych disability. She had already twice attempted to commit suicide with a knife (that I knew of).
She slices her forehead and runs, blood streaming, into the midst of an anti-rape rally about 2000 yards away. Fire/EMS and Police both interview her, Fire/EMS to check for concussion, then Police to investigate crime -- and get two completely different stories. And they already know about the prior attempted suicides.
Her father threatens to sue UMass for libel if UM doesn't say that she had been attacked by the (nonexistent) rapist, so UM does.
The school essentially shuts down, attending class becomes optional per Faculty Senate, etc.
The DA threatens to criminally prosecute anyone who mentions her name -- I get one of these phone calls. (How she got my number is another question...)
Four months later, it is admitted that she fabricated the whole thing. Her name was never released publicly. I think it should have been.
And she was not a Republican, let alone MAGA.
Once more: this never happened. You know it didn't — well, maybe you actually do believe your own bullshit art this point — I know it didn't, everyone knows it didn't.
That does it -- life is too short -- you are now blocked.
The ONLY person I have blocked now the Reverend is gone.
And it was agreed by everyone involved to destroy all evidence of this ever happening, right? False documentation was then created to fill in the gaps to throw any snoops in the future. Still, a few troublemakers were sent to secret prisons in Bulgaria until their silence could be assured, but otherwise nobody ever spoke about this remarkable incident … until now.
https://www.capecodtimes.com/story/news/1999/11/17/another-sexual-assault-reported-at/51028485007/
My favorite part is how, because you were her neighbor, the firemen, EMS, and police each let you sit in on their interviews.
"whom I knew personally as she had been my neighbor,"
Pray tell, how do you conclude as you do? (I was actually driving a university truck at the time...)
The fact that something came out later does not mean I knew it at the time...
Pray, what significant legal issue is being examined here? Or does the Volokh Conspiracy maintain a prurience quota that needs to be fulfilled? But I believe Professor Blackman handles that department all on his own.
For one, what constitutes "justice" in a situation like this?
Second, should her name be released, as she's clearly mentally ill.
Third, what responsibilities do third parties have here -- both legally and ethically.
Fourth, the Charles Stuart case -- he murdered his wife and blamed it on "a Black man", Boston PD found a Black man and was prosecuting him, what then?
I don't think we can say without the details. There will be lawyers on each side and a neutral judge and hopefully in our system the right outcome will result from that.
The key in this (and every) case is to find out what level of: really mean/really stupid/really crazy we are dealing with and punish/treat accordingly.
What I said with the UM incident is that you can discuss the conduct but not the mental illness.
1. A young woman who works for a Congressman goes to an outright body modification specialist in order to fake a political attack on herself, and you expect people not to write about it?
2. Hearing about such apparent hoaxes is a useful reminder to all of us to be skeptical about allegations of political crimes, regardless of whom the allegations implicitly target.
3. I've certainly blogged about past hoaxes that implicitly targeted attackers who were supposedly on the Right (see, e.g., this post); it seems only fair to do the same when the hoax implicitly targeted attackers who were supposedly on the Left.
It very clearly demonstrates the problem with "he said, she said" in rape allegations.
Agree on all counts. While this kind of thing has become too common on the Left, it should be clear to those of us on the Right that turnabout is foul play.
Classic MAGA victimhood.
No, the UM woman was a left-leaning lesbian, definitely not MAGA.
Time for an update to this classic “The Far Side”… https://newbeautifulera.wordpress.com/2013/03/30/how-nature-says-do-not-touch-a-classic-far-side-comic/
"the cellphone of Greene's co-conspirator had been used to search 'zip ties near me.'"
I hope there's a count for criminal stupidity in the mix.
A Justin Smollett copy cat.
He didn't mutilate himself.
I remember reading that cases where the purported victim had writing scrawled on their bodies were almost always hoaxes
In short, the more dramatic the scene is, the more likely it is to be fake.
Simply because someone wanting to harm or kill a person will just kill them. However, someone wanting to make a scene will make a scene.
File it with the rest of the fake hate crimes and convict her without drama. She's not worth our time. However, I do find it interesting that I don't recall anyone falling for it at the time. Have we just gotten better since Smollett or is there a political bias? Because I know a bunch of clearly fake hate crimes that were never prosecuted.
My personal favorite was the girl who used her car mirror to carve a "B" in her forehead. ("B" for Barack Obama.)
Yep, she got it backwards.....
Remember how I keep saying MAGAs are the dumbest shits on the planet. Well here is another one.
Also I am dismayed and outraged that there is no Egg Harbor to go with Egg Harbor Township.
There are idiots everywhere, but I didn't see anyone falling for this. Even on day one, the conservative media was silent on it, compared to the left wing media which seems to fall for fake hate crimes every time.
No, because Jussie Smollett.
The two most abundant substances in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity. Stop trying to pretend it's only the other guys who are stupid. You sound stupid.
Almost any purported incident like this is more often than not a hoax.
"the cellphone of Greene's co-conspirator had been used to search "zip ties near me.""
That's comically inept. And I would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for those meddling kids.
Greene's co-conspirator called 911 and reported that she and Greene had been attacked by three men when they were out walking on a trail at a nature preserve in Egg Harbor Township.
So they were hatching a plot in Egg Harbor.
To be honest, it may be fair to call her a "Trump whore", just not the way she intended. Inadvertent honesty.