A New Jersey woman has been charged with conspiracy and making false statements after she faked being the victim of a brutal attack, by zip-tying herself, paying an artist to scar her face and body with cuts and writing “Trump whore” on her torso in a fabricated plot, the acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey said Wednesday.
Natalie Greene, 26, a former staff member for U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ), allegedly told a concocted story to FBI agents, saying she was attacked on July 23 around 10 p.m. by three men who called her names while she was walking with a friend on a nature trail near Atlantic City. Two of the men restrained her on the ground, she said, binding her ankles together with zip ties as they struck her in the head and cut her with a sharp object all over her body.
Besides “Trump whore” on her abdomen, there was writing on her back calling a certain federal official racist. The name of that official was redacted in the report.
Greene claimed one of the men had a gun and threatened to shoot her if she didn’t stay quiet. Her friend claimed one of the men held her down, too, but she escaped and then called 911, after which responding cops found Greene tied up around 10:36 p.m.
“They were attacking her. They were, like, talking about politics and stuff. They were, like, calling her names,” the friend told a 911 operator, according to court documents.
New Jersey officers took Greene to a hospital to receive medical treatment and treat the cuts on her face, chest and shoulder.
Officers started to become suspicious of the incident when they searched Greene’s Maserati, in which she drove to the nature reserve with her friend. Officers found zip ties similar to the ones used in the alleged incident and a roll of duct tape.
Detectives obtained a search warrant for Greene’s phone that showed a Reddit profile in which she was active in communities for body modification and scarification. Detectives also reviewed her travel history, which had directions to a body-modification artist in Pennsylvania.
Calls and a series of Instagram messages were tracked by cops between Greene and the body-modification artist, and they found a waiver from the artist on July 23. Greene paid $500 for body work and signed a consent form around 2:31 p.m. that day, a little under eight hours before she was found cut up and tied up on the nature trail.
Detectives concluded the body modifications made by the artist matched the same lacerations Greene sported when cops located her.
Prosecutors and the FBI also obtained location data from the phones of Greene and her friend. Two days before the incident, on July 21, the friend conducted a Google search of “zip ties near me,” and 40 minutes later went into a Dollar General store around 6 p.m. in Ventnor, N.J. It was unclear from video surveillance obtained by officers if the friend actually purchased the zip ties there.
Greene was a constituent advocate director and worked with Van Drew’s office starting in 2021, according to Legistorm.
“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,” a spokesperson for Van Drew told NJ Advance Media.
If convicted of conspiracy and false statements, Greene, who lives in Ocean City, N.J., could face a maximum imprisonment of up to five years, a $250,000 fine and a three-year term of supervised release.
She was released on $200,000 unsecured bond after her court appearance in New Jersey Federal Court.