Woman who worked for N.J. Congressman Van Drew charged with false report of violent political attack

A 26-year-old Ocean City woman who worked for U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew was charged with falsely reporting that she had been seriously lacerated across her upper body in a politically motivated attack when she actually paid a Pennsylvania body modification artist $500 to cut her, according to a federal criminal complaint released Wednesday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Natalie Greene was charged with one count of conspiracy to convey false statements and hoaxes and one count of making false statements to federal law enforcement, acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba said.

In a statement provided Wednesday evening, Van Drew’s office said: “We are deeply saddened by today’s news, and while Natalie is no longer associated with the Congressman’s government office, our thoughts and prayers are with her. We hope she’s getting the care she needs.”

Greene’s lawyer, Louis M. Barbone of the Jacobs & Barbone law firm in Atlantic City, said in a statement released Thursday: “At the age of 26, my client served her community working full time to assist the constituents of the Congressman with loyalty and fidelity. She did that while being a full-time student. Under the law, she is presumed innocent and reserves all of her defenses for presentation in a court of law.”

On July 23, a coconspirator called 911 shortly after 10:30 p.m. to report that Greene had been attacked by three unknown men who knew her name and that she worked for Van Drew, according to the criminal complaint, which identifies him only as “Federal Official 1.”

“They were attacking her. They were like talking about politics and stuff. They were like calling her names,” the coconspirator told 911, reporting that the attack occurred at the Egg Harbor Township Nature Preserve, the complaint said.

The coconspirator, who was not named in the criminal complaint, allegedly said the attackers claimed they had a gun. “They said that if we don’t be quiet they were going to shoot us,” the coconspirator allegedly said, also explaining that she was able to flee the men but they still had Greene.

Egg Harbor Township police arrived with a K9 dog and located Greene just off a nature trail lying on the ground with her feet and hands bound together with black zip ties, the complaint said.

Greene’s shirt was pulled over her head and the words “Trump Whore” were written with black marker on her stomach, and “[Federal Official 1] is Racist” was written on her back, the complaint said.

She had long crisscrossing lacerations on her upper chest, shoulder, back, neck, and lower right side of her face, the complaint showed with included photos.

Greene was transported to a hospital, and then later transferred to a second hospital for treatment.

Before Greene was taken to the first hospital, she was interviewed by police and asked to recount what happened. When police asked to check Greene’s Maserati SUV, her coconspirator became agitated and said she didn’t think the police needed to search the vehicle, the complaint said.

However, Greene consented to a search and police found two black zip ties similar to the zip ties used on Greene, as well as a roll of duct tape, the complaint said.

Investigators later found that location data from Greene’s phone showed that on the day of the alleged attack, she had traveled to the scarification artist’s studio in Pennsylvania, then to Ventnor, where the coconspirator lived, the complaint said.

Two days earlier, someone using the coconspirator’s phone did a Google search for “zip ties near me,” the complaint said.

Investigators later reviewed surveillance video from a Dollar General store in Ventnor that showed the coconspirator at the store 40 minutes after the Google search was made, the complaint said. The store sold black zip ties similar to what was used on Greene and the same duct tape, though the video did not show her purchasing zip ties while she did purchase other items. The surveillance video only showed the cash register area and not other parts of the store, the complaint said.

On July 25, Greene was interviewed by agents from the FBI Joint Terrorism Take Force and Egg Harbor Township police detectives, and she again reported that she was attacked and cut up by three men, the complaint said.

She also was asked to describe any threats made to Van Drew’s office.

“There’s so many. I mean. Yeah, racist um. Windmills belong on your grave. Like stupid, I mean like there, they have a bunch of little things on there that they’ll write on there. We have them all, you can look at all of them. But um. Yeah we keep em just. We keep all of our hate mail. We recently got like, a letter with like powder in it and stuff,” she said, according to the complaint

Greene was asked if the powder incident was recent.

“Yeah very recent. Like maybe a week ago. And are to the point where our Chief of Staff was like you guys need to be using gloves to open the mail. Stuff like that,” she allegedly said.

A review of phone records showed that Greene had a Reddit account that followed communities for “bodymods” and “scarification,” the complaint said.

On July 30, the FBI visited the studio in Pennsylvania and obtained a consent form signed by Greene with a copy of her New Jersey driver’s license that she allegedly provided the day of the reported attack, according to the complaint.

The FBI also obtained the receipt showing that Greene allegedly paid the studio $500 cash, as well as photos the artist took of his work on Greene’s body.

The photos showed the cuts made by the artist matched the cuts photographed at the hospital, the complaint said.