Marjorie Taylor Greene Wants Tesla Protests Investigated, Presumably Because They're Hurting The Value Of Her Tesla Stock

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who I want to emphasize does not represent my district, is mad. This isn't new, of course. She's always mad about something. This time around, though, it's people exercising their Constitutionally guaranteed right to protest outside Tesla dealerships. After Trump claimed he would prosecute anyone arrested in connection with the protests as domestic terrorists, Greene announced on Twitter that she'd sent a letter to both Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel demanding they open an investigation into the protests, insisting that "Attacks on Tesla must be investigated as domestic terrorism!" Not property. Tesla the company.

In the attached letter, Greene mentions the "wave of organized attacks targeting Elon Musk" before pivoting to claims of property damage. And she's correct that there have been a few incidents where bad actors have clearly broken the law, including setting a few parked Cybertrucks on fire. Of course, then she began complaining about the alleged involvement of Antifa, an imaginary domestic terror organization Republicans insist coordinates the violent protests that literally burned down multiple major U.S. cities in 2020 (oh wait, that didn't happen, either). The part where much of the criminal activity that actually did happen around protests that summer ended up being traced back to right-wing instigators attempting to undermine the movement always seems to get left out, too.

Oh, and of course she had to repeat Musk's ridiculous claim the payment processing platform various left-leaning organizations use to collect donations from individuals is some kind of nefarious scheme.

Read more: Tesla Recalls Almost Every Car It's Sold In The US

Rules For Thee But Not For Me

Greene made a name for herself being one of the loudest and dumbest Republicans in Congress, so it's no surprise that she'd attempt to curry favor with Musk, but she may also have other motivations. Specifically, she spent a lot of money buying Tesla stock, and wouldn't you know it, as public sentiment turns against Musk, the value of his meme stock keeps dropping. As of the time of writing, TSLA is down more than 36 percent for the year, which is good news if you're someone who wants bad things to happen to Musk but terrible news if you're someone hoping the line would never stop going up.

When Forbes looked into Greene's financial disclosures, it found that while she owned less than $1,000 of Tesla stock at the end of 2023, she started buying more in September 2024 after Musk went mask-off and threw his full weight behind Trump. Greene made nine purchases in total, and while it isn't clear from the disclosure exactly how much she invested, the total value falls between $9,000 and $135,000. Forbes also found that five of those stock purchases took place after Greene was placed on the House committee created to work with Musk and his elite team of broccoli-haired teens.

While that was already pretty sketchy at best, it wasn't necessarily illegal. The letter she sent, however, likely crossed an ethical line laid out in the House code of conduct. "The letter could raise a serious ethics issue for Representative Greene," campaign finance attorney Brett Kappel told Forbes. "House ethics rules prohibit a member from taking any official action that would benefit her own financial interest." Then again, ethics only matter if there are actual consequences for unethical behavior, and there's no way Mike forking Johnson is going to do anything about ethics violations within his own party, even if you'd think ethical conduct would be a big deal for the so-called party of family values.

Blurring Legal Lines

Even if you fully support the Tesla Takedown protests and want to see Musk out of the White House, mostly broke and living out of a broken down Cybertruck, crimes are still crimes. Putting other people at risk is wrong, but it also plays into the hands of Republicans who are desperate to use property damage to justify going after peaceful protesters exercising their First Amendment rights. And the more they succeed at convincing the public that anti-Musk protesters are all violent terrorists, the more support there will be for charging peaceful protest as domestic terrorists. Republicans have already had one person arrested on U.S. soil because they didn't like his speech, and there's no reason to think they'll stop with legal permanent residents.

Georgia defense attorney Lawrence J. Zimmerman did confirm to me in a brief phone call that, considering Musk's current role in the administration, it's conceivable that destroying Tesla vehicles, showrooms, or chargers could meet the requirements laid out in the current definition of domestic terrorism. Whether or not the prosecutor could actually get a conviction would be an entirely separate issue, but the Justice Department bringing the charges wouldn't be unimaginable. Charging regular protesters as terrorists, though, would likely be, uh, how would the New York Times put this, "a bold departure from previously established norms." So as long as protesters stay on the not-blowing-anything-up-or-burning-anything-down side of the law, Greene and all of Elon's weird nerds are just going to have to stay mad about them making the line go down.

Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox...

Read the original article on Jalopnik.