A New Jersey woman was charged on Wednesday with conspiracy and making false statements to law enforcement after an investigation revealed she allegedly fabricated a violent assault that she claimed was tied to her employment with a federal official.
Natalie Greene, 26, of Ocean City, and a former staffer for Republican New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew, 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 and Special Attorney Alina Habba announced. Greene made her initial appearance in federal court before U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth A. Pascal and was released on a $200,000 unsecured bond.
According to court documents, the alleged incident occurred late at night on July 23, 2025, at a nature preserve trail in Egg Harbor Township.
Greene’s co-conspirator called 911, reporting that three men had attacked them while out walking.
- The co-conspirator claimed the attackers called Greene by name and referenced her employment with a federal official (known to the government as “Federal Official 1”).
- When law enforcement located Greene, she was lying in a wooded area just off the trail, bound with black zip ties on her hands and feet, with her shirt pulled over her head.
- The words “TRUMP WH*RE” were written on her stomach, and “[Federal Official 1] IS RACIST” was written on her back.
- Greene had numerous lacerations on her face, neck, upper chest, and shoulder. She told police one or more attackers threatened to shoot her with a gun, held her down, cut her, and wrote on her body. She repeated this account to law enforcement, including an FBI agent, days later.
The investigation revealed that Greene had not, in fact, been attacked by three men at gunpoint on July 23. Instead, Greene had paid a body modification/scarification artist to deliberately cut the lacerations on her face, neck, upper chest, and shoulder, based on a pattern that she had provided beforehand.
The evidence also showed that law enforcement officers recovered black zip ties in Greene’s car the night of the alleged attack, similar to those used to bind her. Furthermore, two days before the incident, the co-conspirator’s cellphone was allegedly used to search “zip ties near me.”
Both the conspiracy charge and the false statements charge carry a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and a term of three years of supervised release.
Acting U.S. Attorney Habba credited several agencies for their work on the investigation, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office, the Egg Harbor Township Police Department, the New Jersey State Police, and the Capitol Police.
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