Ex-GOP aide Natalie Greene paid artist to stage her injuries in fake anti-Trump attack: court docs

OCEAN CITY, NEW JERSEY: A former New Jersey GOP aide is facing a decade in prison after she reportedly hired a fetish artist to slice her up so she could play victim and spin a bogus tale about being targeted for her politics.

According to new court documents, Natalie Greene, 26, allegedly paid someone to carve dozens of cuts across her skin and then had a friend scribble “Trump Whore” on her stomach, all to make it look like she had been brutally attacked for being a Republican. 

Greene was arrested on Wednesday, November 19, and hit with federal charges stemming from the alleged staged ambush at Egg Harbor Township Nature Reserve back on July 23, the US Attorney’s Office for New Jersey said.

Phony late-night ambush

Prosecutors say Greene claimed that around 10.30 pm that day, she and a friend were supposedly confronted by three armed men on a nature trail who allegedly told her they’d attack her and warned that they knew exactly who she was.

Greene said the trio restrained her and left her with injuries, including markings on her body that she described as anti-Trump messages targeting her GOP ties.

The law student notably worked for US Rep Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ), according to the New Jersey Globe.

When the story first broke, neighbors in Greene’s community were stunned. “At the end of the day, we’re talking about a 25-year-old girl, a beautiful girl, whose politics aren’t supposed to reach that level of extreme,” said Fiona Tierney, 49, to the New York Post.

“Now she’s got to spend the rest of her life with these scars to remind her of what she did. What, she’s going to the beach wearing a bathing suit with all that on display? She’d never live this down. What kind of a future is that?” she asked.

Meanwhile, her attorney Louis M Barone insisted she’s innocent until proven guilty and reminded reporters she was working for Van Drew’s office while attending school during the time of the alleged hoax.

Grisly 'body modification' trip

But court documents say two days before the so-called ambush, Greene drove to Pennsylvania and forked over $500 to a body modification artist she found on Instagram.

Prosecutors said she asked them to create deliberate marks on her body, following a pattern Greene had allegedly given them.

On the night of July 23, Greene’s friend (and alleged accomplice) frantically dialed 911 to report she had been violently attacked and even singled out by name. Officers rushed to the scene and found Greene in a wooded patch just off the trail with her hands and feet bound, her shirt yanked over her head. 

The phrases “TRUMP WHORE” and “Van Drew is a racist” were written in black marker across her scarred body. 

She screamed that one of her attackers had a gun, the complaint said. 

Photos included in the court file show her covered in deep cuts. 

But investigators quickly spotted cracks in the tale. Prosecutors say Greene and her accomplice gave inconsistent explanations and shaky descriptions of the supposed assailants. Meanwhile, a search turned up black zip ties and duct tape in Greene’s Maserati.

Furthermore, federal officials say Greene's pal searched “zip ties near me” just two days earlier and even took a trip to a Ventnor Dollar General to pick them up.

Van Drew’s office said in a statement, “While Natalie is no longer associated with the congressman’s government office, our thoughts and prayers are with her and hope she’s getting the care she needs." Greene had joined the team part-time in 2022, later serving as a constituent advocate.

Federal charges and a possible decade in prison

Now Greene has been charged with conspiracy to convey false statements and hoaxes and making false statements to federal law enforcement.

She appeared in federal court on Wednesday, where she was released on a $200,000 unsecured bond.

If she’s convicted on both counts, the onetime GOP aide could be staring down as much as ten years in a federal cell.