Did Marjorie Taylor Greene and her husband commit tax fraud in Georgia? Sure looks like it
Another day, another story that confirms what we all know: Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has no business in Congress. This week alone, the freshman conspiracy theorist made headlines for chasing after and screaming at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the Capitol, and again after her aide, Nick Dyer, accosted Rep. Eric Swalwell on the House floor, and then again, after an extremely disturbing video showed Greene (R-Karens) and friends harassing the door (yes, a door) of Ocasio-Cortez’s congressional office back in 2019.
The old video, of course, was as attention-seeking as anything else Greene does today. The not-quite 47-year-old gym owner feeds on attention. Stripped of every committee assignment by her peers, the easily distracted Greene is bored, with lots of free time on her hands. She may believe the nonsense she spews in her desperation to remain in the public eye, but it’s just as likely that she doesn’t. Either way, she works hard to ensure that the average person watching her antics despises her. Looking back at her life, this may be her greatest success.
Admittedly, spreading conspiracy theories, worshipping Donald Trump, and yelling at closed doors may not be particularly great choices, or actions one would expect from a member of Congress. They’re also not illegal acts.
Tax fraud, however, is very much illegal. Atlanta investigative reporter Justin Gray gave the reviled Georgia representative her worst headline of the week when he revealed Friday that Greene and her husband Perry have been double-dipping in Georgia’s tax breaks since at least 2020.
For anyone who doesn’t know much of Greene’s origin story, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) offers an extensive chronicling of the belligerent blonde’s journey to Congress. It’s worth a read.
Greene is a construction heiress turned Crossfit competitor and conservative vlogger who only found her way to the House after jurisdiction hopping. As the AJC notes, Greene attempted to rewrite her biography as she pursued a seat, any seat, in Congress, claiming that she’s “spent the past two decades running my business alongside my husband.”
The site has been offline for “scheduled maintenance” in recent months, but Marjorie Greene has no significant presence on the company’s web pages collected over the past 20 years by the Internet Archive site’s Wayback Machine.
She is not listed with other executives on the company’s leadership pages. Greene is not featured in the archived pages where her father and husband are the central actors in the company’s story.
From “the middle of 2007 to 2010,” the AJC reports that Greene was listed as the chief financial officer for the company her daddy built, a company that built much of its wealth by snatching up government contracts for low-income housing. That’s right—despite the conspiracy theorist’s constant rage against “socialist Democrats” and government safety net programs, she and her family saw fit to make millions from them.
But by 2011, she was no longer listed at CFO. Greene became obsessed with Crossfit that same year. With her apparently nominal efforts to sustain her daddy’s business behind her, the tiny fanatic competed in Crossfit competitions. She opened her own Crossfit gym in 2013, even admitting she had no business experience.
By 2017, the AJC reports, the zealot had lost her passion for the cultish fitness craze, and abandoned her gym behind her as she focused on politics under the Donald Trump regime, joining Twitter and doing really fun stuff like visiting the nation’s capital to chase a teenager who’d just survived a high school massacre and screaming at AOC’s door.
By early 2019, it seemed that the aimless heiress had decided upon her next hobby: running for Congress. From all appearances, it seems that her college sweetheart hubby—who does appear to actually run the construction business—was willing to help Greene fudge a few details to help her get on the ballot.
Two weeks later, Greene announced her candidacy for Congress in the Sixth District, and her profile as a business owner of her family’s construction company was central to the campaign’s rollout.
By December 2019, Greene had left her Sixth District campaign behind, and in 2020, the couple, who own a home in Fulton County, bought a $610,000 home in the 14th District that ultimately elected her. That very Floyd County, Georgia, home brings us to the alleged tax fraud (finally)!
A homestead exemption is a big tax break any Georgia homeowner is entitled to for their primary residence. It is against the law to file for more than one.
Yet that’s exactly what the Greenes did.
In the Floyd county application, Greene’s husband left blank the line that asked if they had another active exemption on any property.
But Fulton County tax officials confirm to (investigative reporter Justin) Gray that Greene never stopped getting the tax break on the Fulton property.
Details on this illegal double-dip are still emerging as both Floyd and Fulton county officials dig in, but Greene and her handlers found themselves at a loss when asked about it. In a statement raging against WSB-TV for doing journalism, Greene’s office reduced the fraud to “paperwork, which is being taken care of.” That’s basically an admission of guilt.
Greene’s statement also declared her to be a “proud resident” of her current district, before lashing out at reporter Justin Gray with words that would have found themselves at home on the Twitter page of Greene’s messiah, Donald Trump … if he was allowed to have one.
Gray reports that the penalty for the Greenes’ alleged crime would amount to about $12,000, or twice the couple’s tax bill.
The Greenes are allegedly millionaires, with much of their wealth generated by the very government contracts the missus loves to complain about. A six grand tax dodge seems so utterly unworthy of the risk, particularly since Greene was already running for office at the time. Greene loaned nearly a million dollars to her campaign, after all; $6,000 seems so … insignificant.
Is tax fraud enough to compel the removal of Greene from Congress, once and for all? Not likely. But it’s just another reminder of how very unfit she is for public office. As it is, Greene seems to have already moved on from her meager duties in the House, instead touring the nation spewing bile and “America First” nonsense to frothy crowds who believe Donald Trump is still our secret president. And she’s doing it with another of the more reviled members of Congress: Matt Gaetz of Florida, who is currently under investigation for sex trafficking.
What. A. Pair.