Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who I need to emphasize doesn’t symbolize my district, is mad. This is not new, after all. She’s at all times mad about one thing. This time round, although, it is folks exercising their Constitutionally assured proper to protest exterior Tesla dealerships. After Trump claimed he would prosecute anybody arrested in reference to the protests as home terrorists, Greene introduced on Twitter that she’d despatched a letter to each Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel demanding they open an investigation into the protests, insisting that “Assaults on Tesla should be investigated as home terrorism!” Not property. Tesla the corporate.
Within the connected letter, Greene mentions the “wave of organized assaults focusing on Elon Musk” earlier than pivoting to claims of property injury. And she or he’s appropriate that there have been a number of incidents the place unhealthy actors have clearly damaged the regulation, together with setting a number of parked Cybertrucks on hearth. After all, then she started complaining in regards to the alleged involvement of Antifa, an imaginary home terror group Republicans insist coordinates the violent protests that actually burned down a number of main U.S. cities in 2020 (oh wait, that did not occur, both). The half the place a lot of the felony exercise that truly did occur round protests that summer season ended up being traced again to right-wing instigators making an attempt to undermine the motion at all times appears to get disregarded, too.
Oh, and naturally she needed to repeat Musk’s ridiculous declare the cost processing platform varied left-leaning organizations use to gather donations from people is a few sort of nefarious scheme.
Guidelines for thee however not for me
Greene made a reputation for herself being one of many loudest and dumbest Republicans in Congress, so it is no shock that she’d try to curry favor with Musk, however she might also produce other motivations. Particularly, she spent some huge cash shopping for Tesla inventory, and would not it, as public sentiment turns in opposition to Musk, the worth of his meme inventory retains dropping. As of the time of writing, TSLA is down greater than 36 % for the 12 months, which is sweet information when you’re somebody who needs unhealthy issues to occur to Musk however horrible information when you’re somebody hoping the road would by no means cease going up.
When Forbes seemed into Greene’s monetary disclosures, it discovered that whereas she owned lower than $1,000 of Tesla inventory on the finish of 2023, she began shopping for extra in September 2024 after Musk went mask-off and threw his full weight behind Trump. Greene made 9 purchases in complete, and whereas it is not clear from the disclosure precisely how a lot she invested, the whole worth falls between $9,000 and $135,000. Forbes additionally discovered that 5 of these inventory purchases passed off after Greene was positioned on the Home committee created to work with Musk and his elite staff of broccoli-haired teenagers.
Whereas that was already fairly sketchy at greatest, it wasn’t essentially unlawful. The letter she despatched, nevertheless, doubtless crossed an moral line specified by the Home code of conduct. “The letter may elevate a severe ethics challenge for Consultant Greene,” marketing campaign finance lawyer Brett Kappel advised Forbes. “Home ethics guidelines prohibit a member from taking any official motion that may profit her personal monetary curiosity.” Then once more, ethics solely matter if there are precise penalties for unethical habits, and there is no means Mike forking Johnson goes to do something about ethics violations inside his personal get together, even when you’d assume moral conduct can be a giant deal for the so-called get together of household values.
Blurring authorized traces
Even when you absolutely help the Tesla Takedown protests and need to see Musk out of the White Home, principally broke and residing out of a damaged down Cybertruck, crimes are nonetheless crimes. Placing different folks in danger is mistaken, but it surely additionally performs into the palms of Republicans who’re determined to make use of property injury to justify going after peaceable protesters exercising their First Modification rights. And the extra they succeed at convincing the general public that anti-Musk protesters are all violent terrorists, the extra help there will probably be for charging peaceable protest as home terrorists. Republicans have already had one individual arrested on U.S. soil as a result of they did not like his speech, and there is no cause to assume they’re going to cease with authorized everlasting residents.
Georgia protection lawyer Lawrence J. Zimmerman did affirm to me in a short telephone name that, contemplating Musk’s present position within the administration, it is conceivable that destroying Tesla automobiles, showrooms, or chargers may meet the necessities specified by the present definition of home terrorism. Whether or not or not the prosecutor may truly get a conviction can be a wholly separate challenge, however the Justice Division bringing the fees would not be unimaginable. Charging common protesters as terrorists, although, would doubtless be, uh, how would the New York Instances put this, “a daring departure from beforehand established norms.” So so long as protesters keep on the not-blowing-anything-up-or-burning-anything-down aspect of the regulation, Greene and all of Elon’s bizarre nerds are simply going to have to remain mad about them making the road go down.
