The Psychology Behind Natalie Greene's Alleged Staged Political Attack

Thoughts from a Forensic Psychologist

Natalie Greene, 26, has been charged with conspiracy to commit false statements and hoaxes, and with making false statements to federal law enforcement. She has pleaded not guilty and is presumed innocent. This analysis examines the allegations and evidence as presented in the federal criminal complaint.

10:36 PM

The 911 operator in Egg Harbor Township heard panic in the caller’s voice.

“Three guys just attacked us.”

The woman was breathless. Her friend was still out there, still with them. The men had a gun. They’d known her friend’s name. They’d talked about politics. They’d called her a whore.

“They said that if we don’t be quiet, they were going to shoot us.”

Officers grabbed flashlights and a K9 unit. They raced toward the Nature Reserve, 2,000 acres of pine woods and wetlands, as dark as the devil’s heart.

They found her just off the trail.

She lay in the dirt, wrists and ankles bound with black zip ties. Her shirt had been pulled over her head and tied with another plastic restraint. Blood covered her face, her neck, her chest. Long cuts crisscrossed her upper body, precise, surgical-looking lacerations.

She was screaming. “He has a gun! He has a gun!”

The officers cut the zip ties and called for an ambulance. Then they saw the writing. Black marker on her stomach: “TRUMP WHORE.” On her back: “VAN DREW IS RACIST.”

Political attack. Hate crime. Congressional staffer targeted for her work. That’s what it looked like.

That’s what it was supposed to look like.

Seven hours earlier, Natalie Greene had walked into a body modification studio in Pennsylvania with $500 cash and a very specific request.

Seven Hours Earlier: 6:09 PM

The customer paid in cash; $500 for body modification. The receipt was printed at 6:09 p.m.

Inside a studio in Pennsylvania, an artist had used a scalpel to cut deliberate patterns across Greene’s face, down her neck, and over her chest, shoulders, and back. These were deep, precise incisions, a form of body art called scarification. The cuts heal into decorative scar tissue.

Twenty-six-year-old Greene had been specific about what she wanted. She’d sent photos showing exactly which patterns to carve, asked detailed questions about pain and bleeding, and signed consent forms. Per protocol, the artist had made a copy of her New Jersey driver’s license for his records. His work was perfectly legal; clients requested it all the time.

When the FBI knocked on his door a week later, he handed them everything: consent forms, ID copies, photographs proving he’d made those cuts with her full written consent. He’d done professional body art. How his client had used his art afterwards was about to become a federal case.

Smart and Driven

Three years earlier, in August 2021, Natalie Greene had started as an unpaid intern in Republican Congressman Jeff Van Drew’s office, the bottom rung of the political ladder where thousands of ambitious young people start every year.

She’d climbed quickly. By June 2023, she’d been promoted to constituent advocate, helping voters navigate federal bureaucracy and handling their complaints. By June 2024, she’d moved up to Constituent Advocate Director, supervising other staff. Just three years from unpaid intern to director showed ambition and competence in the competitive world of congressional offices.

In the fall of 2024, she started at Rutgers Law School, juggling night classes with her congressional work. Her LinkedIn profile listed both positions: J.D. candidate and Constituent Advocate Director for the U.S. House of Representatives. Greene lived in Ocean City, a family-friendly barrier island where the boardwalk stretches 2.5 miles and local laws still prohibit alcohol sales. Just north lies Ventnor, a smaller, quieter beach town where her friend lived, the friend who would help her stage what prosecutors would later call an elaborate hoax.

Van Drew himself had an unusual political trajectory. Elected as a Democrat in 2018, he’d stunned his party in December 2019 by switching to the Republican Party during Trump’s first impeachment. He’d opposed impeachment, and when Democratic colleagues voted for it anyway, he walked across the aisle and pledged his “undying support” to Trump. By 2025, he represented New Jersey’s 2nd Congressional District as a reliable Republican vote.

Her Reddit account followed communities dedicated to body modification, where enthusiasts discuss tattoos, piercings, and intentional scarring. Whether this interest stretched back years or represented recent research for what she was planning, investigators would desperately want to know.

Monday, July 21: Two Days Before

Someone used an alleged (and consistently unnamed) co-conspirator’s cellphone in Ventnor and opened Google, typing four words: “zip ties near me.”

Forty minutes later, surveillance cameras at a Dollar General on Ventnor Avenue captured that woman walking through the entrance. The store stocked black plastic zip ties in its hardware section, the kind you can buy for a few dollars. The camera angle showed only the cash register area, not the aisles, so investigators who would review this footage later could see her purchasing items, but couldn’t see what she’d selected from the shelves.

But they would know what that Dollar General sold. They would know she’d been there. They would know exactly when. And two days later, black zip ties matching the ones from that store would be found binding Greene’s wrists and ankles, with two more discovered in Greene’s Maserati.

Between Monday and Wednesday, Greene exchanged Instagram messages with the Pennsylvania body modification artist, confirming details: the pattern she wanted carved into her skin, the appointment time, and the exact specifications of where each cut should go. She was leaving nothing to chance.

Wednesday, July 23: The Artist’s Studio

Greene arrived at the Pennsylvania studio sometime after 2 p.m., driving her Maserati across state lines for an appointment that would permanently alter her appearance. She showed him the pattern again, the design she’d sent via Instagram. She wanted it replicated exactly across her body. It was the kind of work that takes hours.

When he finished, he photographed his work from multiple angles, proof that he’d created exactly what his client requested. The photos showed fresh cuts, bleeding wounds, raw flesh along the lines he’d carved. She had plenty to do: pick up her friend in Ventnor, New Jersey, and, later, head out to the nature preserve. Where everything would change.

The Route

According to prosecutors, Greene’s phone tracked her path through the evening. From the body artist’s studio in Pennsylvania to her friend’s house in Ventnor. They stopped briefly at a Dunkin’ Donuts in Atlantic City, then went west to Egg Harbor Township and the 2000-acre Nature Reserve. The phone registered every location.

Somewhere along those trails, the two stopped. Greene’s wrists were bound together with plastic zip ties, then her ankles. Another zip tie pulled her shirt up over her head and secured it. Someone took a black marker and wrote on her stomach: “TRUMP WHORE.” On her back: “VAN DREW IS RACIST.”

Greene lay down among the trees just off the trail, her fresh cuts bleeding, marker ink stark against her skin, and zip ties biting into her wrists and ankles. Her friend moved away—how far, no one has said—and got ready to make the emergency call.

10:36 PM: The Call

“Three guys just attacked us,” the woman told the 911 operator, her voice panicked and breathless.

“They were attacking her,” she continued. “They were like talking about politics and stuff. They were like calling her names.”

She said the men knew Greene’s name. They mentioned her job, her boss, and the congressman. “They were like calling her a racist, calling her a whore.”

She said the men had guns and had threatened both women. “They said that if we don’t be quiet, they were going to shoot us.”

She explained that she’d managed to escape, but they still had her friend Greene somewhere in those dark woods.

The operator dispatched officers immediately. Egg Harbor Township police raced toward the Nature Reserve with flashlights and a K9 unit.

The Scene

They found her off the trail. Greene lay helplessly in the dirt, bound and bleeding. She was clearly traumatized, crying and screaming, “He has a gun! He has a gun!” They saw the long, crisscrossing lacerations across her upper chest, shoulders, and neck, with one cut tracing down the lower right side of her face. Then they saw the writing in black marker: “TRUMP WHORE” on her stomach, “VAN DREW IS RACIST” on her back.

Crying, Greene said her attackers had guns, had threatened to shoot her, had struck her head, held her down, cut her, and written on her. Her friend confirmed everything she said: three attackers, a political attack, Greene being targeted because of her work.

Before the ambulance arrived, officers asked Greene about her vehicle and for permission to search it. They were surprised when Greene’s friend became agitated, saying she didn’t think the police needed to search it. Greene consented and told them to go ahead.

Inside the Maserati, officers found two black zip ties, seemingly identical to those that had bound Greene. They also found a roll of duct tape.

The officers documented and photographed everything, but something felt wrong. Those cuts looked professional, not like injuries that would occur during a vicious attack. The friend’s reaction to the car search request raised eyebrows. And the zip ties in the car didn’t make sense. But they had a victim with serious injuries, her statement, and a witness corroborating the story, so they began investigating what appeared to be a politically motivated hate crime.

Paramedics loaded Greene into the ambulance for transport to the first hospital, then transferred her to a second facility for more extensive treatment. The cuts would require significant care.

Friday, July 25: The FBI Interview

Two days after the incident, FBI agents from the Joint Terrorism Task Force and Egg Harbor Township detectives interviewed Greene, who’d recovered enough to talk. This was a serious crime, a politically motivated assault on a congressional staffer. It was federal jurisdiction.

Greene repeated her story: three men, a physical attack, work-related targeting, political threats, and a gun.

Concerned about a possible pattern, the agents asked Greene about previous threats to Congressman Van Drew’s office. “There’s so many,” she said. “I mean. Yeah, racist um. Windmills belong on your grave. Like stupid, I mean like there, they have a bunch of little things on there that they’ll write on there. We have them all, you can look at all of them. But um. Yeah we keep em just. We keep all of our hate mail. We recently got like, a letter with like powder in it and stuff.”

Powder? The agents leaned forward. When had that happened?

“Yeah very recent. Like maybe a week ago. And we are to the point where our Chief of Staff was like You guys need to be using gloves to open the mail. Stuff like that.”

If true, this established a pattern of escalating threats that provided context for Greene’s attack. The agents thanked her and said they’d be in touch.

The Digital Trail

Investigators pulled phone records and tracked location data, following digital breadcrumbs that told their own story of her July 23 journey from New Jersey to Pennsylvania and back to the nature preserve.

On July 30, FBI agents knocked on the door of the body modification artist. He was informative and cooperative. Yes, Greene had been there; yes, he’d done body modification work on her. He provided the consent form with her signature, a copy of her driver’s license, and the receipt time-stamped 6:09 p.m. showing the $500 cash payment.

Then he showed them the photographs of his work and the Instagram image Greene had provided that inspired it.

FBI agents pulled out hospital photographs of Greene’s injuries and compared them. They matched perfectly; every cut, every line, every angle. The “attack wounds” were the artist’s commissioned work.

More Evidence

Investigators kept digging, and the evidence piled up.

The co-conspirator’s phone showed a July 21 search for “zip ties near me.” Dollar General surveillance captured her forty minutes later in a store that sold black zip ties matching the ones used on Greene, though the camera angle couldn’t show what she’d purchased.

Greene’s Reddit history revealed communities she followed: “bodymods” and “scarification,” evidence of pre-attack interest in body modification.

Greene’s Instagram showed messages exchanged with the Pennsylvania artist spanning days or weeks: discussing patterns, techniques, and planning the work.

They found no evidence of targeted violence. No political extremists. Just professional work on a willing client, a friend helping stage a scene, and both women lying to police, first responders, and the FBI.

Four Months of Silence

The FBI worked quietly over the summer and fall. They gathered evidence, confirmed timelines, interviewed witnesses, and prepared documentation.

Greene and her friend resumed their lives. Greene attended her law school classes. It’s unclear whether she was still working in Van Drew’s office or when she may have left; his office made a statement after charges were issued that she had not been affiliated with his office for “several months.”

On November 19, 2025, nearly four months after the July incident, the U.S. Attorney’s Office unsealed federal charges.

Wednesday, November 19, 2025

Acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba announced the charges: Natalie Greene faced two federal counts. Conspiracy to convey false statements and hoaxes. Making false statements to federal law enforcement.

Each count carried a maximum of five years in prison, meaning Greene faced up to 10 years total, plus fines up to $500,000 and 3 years of supervised release.

Greene appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth A. Pascal in Camden with her attorney, Louis M. Barbone, an experienced Atlantic City area criminal defense lawyer. The judge set an unsecured bond of $200,000, meaning Greene could go home but would be subject to court-imposed conditions requiring her to return for all hearings.

The DOJ press release included photographs: Greene in the woods with zip ties, the cuts covering her body, the marker writing on her skin, the artist’s receipt, and the professional body modification documented in detail. Multiple agencies had investigated what initially appeared to be terrorism: the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office, Egg Harbor Township Police, New Jersey State Police, and Capitol Police.

What began as a potential terrorist attack ended in accusations of an elaborate hoax.

The Statements

Van Drew’s office responded within hours with a carefully worded statement: “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. We hope she’s getting the care she needs.”

The statement was brief and careful, but it raised more questions than it answered. “No longer associated” could mean many things—resignation, termination, mutual separation. When had she left? Was she still employed on July 23 when this happened? The office told The Handbasket that Greene “hasn’t been with the office for months” but wouldn’t specify how many months, wouldn’t confirm her employment status in July, wouldn’t address the threatening mail she’d described, and wouldn’t confirm or deny the “powder letter” Greene had mentioned to FBI agents.

Van Drew himself made no public statement, leaving spokesperson Paxton Antonucci to handle all inquiries with identical brief responses.

The Unnamed Woman

One person was conspicuously absent from the federal charges: the friend from Ventnor who’d reportedly helped Greene stage everything.

She’d searched for zip ties on her phone. She’d visited Dollar General. She’d made the 911 call with detailed false information. She’d been present at the scene when police arrived. She’d become agitated when officers wanted to search Greene’s car.

She’d clearly participated in planning, helped stage the scene, and lied to 911 operators and police officers. Yet prosecutors charged her with nothing.

Her name has never appeared in any public document. The criminal complaint called her “Co-Conspirator 1” or “the coconspirator.” Media reports described her only as “an unnamed woman” or “a female friend.” Ventnor has fewer than 10,000 residents, so people there probably knew who she was, but officially, she remains invisible.

Perhaps she’d cooperated immediately and received immunity in exchange for testimony against Greene. The silence around her status suggested prosecutorial strategy. Federal prosecutors don’t usually grant immunity for nothing, which meant she was likely cooperating fully with their case against Greene.

What We Still Don’t Know

Natalie Greene’s actions showed planning and deliberate preparation. The appointment required advance coordination. She drove to Pennsylvania specifically for this work and paid in cash. She recruited a co-conspirator who helped her plan and carry out an elaborate deception. They lied repeatedly to law enforcement.

The criminal complaint documents what happened with extensive detail and physical evidence, but it doesn’t explain the fundamental question of why.

Part of that mystery lies in some of the undisclosed evidence:

When exactly did Greene leave Van Drew’s office and under what circumstances?

What was her relationship with her co-conspirator? How did Greene convince someone else to participate in federal crimes?

When did Greene join those Reddit communities about body modification? Was this a genuine long-term interest she opportunistically exploited, or had she researched these communities specifically while planning this incident?

Did Van Drew’s office actually receive threatening mail as Greene claimed in her FBI interview? Was there really a powder letter that arrived “maybe a week ago” and prompted the chief of staff to tell employees to wear gloves? Or did Greene fabricate those threats, too, creating false context for her fake attack?

I’ve yet to meet a perpetrator who believed they would be caught. Still, with so much to lose, what did she think there was to gain?

The criminal complaint documents the what, when, where, and how with meticulous detail. The why remains largely unexplained. Until the trial, and in the absence of a personally conducted forensic evaluation, all we can do is look for clues in the research on people who’ve committed similar crimes and in the specifics of this one.

A Forensic Analysis

If the facts are accurate and the allegations are true, Natalie Greene’s case presents a forensic psychology puzzle that defies easy categorization. When we look at the literature, two things quickly become apparent. One, they are rare; less than one percent of all hate crime allegations are fabricated. Two, they often get much more publicity than genuine ones.

Three, they rarely succeed. Research by Katheryn Russell-Brown documented 67 racial hoax cases between 1987 and 1996, finding that more than half were exposed within a week, and hoax perpetrators were charged with filing false reports in approximately 45% of cases. This relatively high detection rate suggests that law enforcement has developed investigative protocols that can quickly identify inconsistencies in fabricated hate crime narratives.

But, clearly, they happen. The research literature identifies several key motivational categories for false victimization claims:

Attention-Seeking and Sympathy: Individuals with certain psychological profiles may fabricate victimization to gain attention, sympathy, and care that they feel unable to obtain through more appropriate channels. If this is the motive, I would expect to see a history of lying, manipulative, and attention-seeking behavior in other areas of Greene’s life.

There is a more subtle alternative. Greene may have needed to feel significant, to have a dramatic life story, to matter in a way that her actual life, even with its genuine accomplishments, didn’t provide. Creating a traumatic event that would define her identity, gain massive attention, and mark her as special may have fulfilled deep psychological needs that had nothing to do with rational cost-benefit analysis.

Identity and Belonging: Greene may have sought to create a traumatic event that would permanently bond her to the conservative movement. Having literal scars “from the left” would give her an unassailable claim to belong to the conservative in-group. No one could question her loyalty or commitment—she had physical proof of what she’d suffered.

This theory has psychological depth. Young people often seek identity through dramatic experiences. Veterans bond over shared combat trauma. Activists bond over shared persecution. Greene may have been trying to manufacture the kind of transformative traumatic experience that creates deep identity and a sense of belonging.

Political Mobilization and Ideological Reinforcement: Perpetrators with political motives may use false allegations to mobilize allies, dramatize perceived injustices, or “prove” that their political opponents are dangerous.

In 2025’s polarized climate, the political messaging seemed designed for maximum impact. “TRUMP WHORE” and “VAN DREW IS RACIST” suggested a narrative that fit perfectly into contemporary partisan divisions, political violence fears, and the cultural currency of victimhood.

If the hoax had worked as planned, Greene could have become a major national story. Political figures across the spectrum would have condemned the attack. She’d have been invited to speak at events, write opinion pieces, and possibly testify before Congress. Conservative media would have embraced her as a political martyr. She’d have had a platform, massive attention, and real significance in the national conversation.

Victim Status as Social Currency: Greene’s chosen narrative, a conservative congressional staffer brutally attacked by left-wing extremists who carved political slurs into her body, would have been politically valuable if believed.

Contemporary research emphasizes that victim status has become a form of social capital in certain contexts. Being victimized, particularly for one’s identity or political beliefs, can confer moral authority, media attention, and community support. This creates perverse incentives, leading some individuals to fabricate victimization to access these social rewards.

The Jussie Smollett case provides an instructive parallel: a relatively successful actor staged an attack that he claimed was motivated by racism and homophobia, apparently believing this would elevate his public profile and moral standing. Research examining such cases notes that people who fabricate hate crimes often have “one or more of the following motives: attention/sympathy, where there are some forms of psychological disturbances that may make it more likely that someone would make a false allegation to get attention or sympathy, including factitious disorder and factitious victimization.”

Personality Pathology: Research proposes multiple pathways to false allegations, including maladaptive personality traits and diagnosable personality disorders. Studies specifically identify borderline personality disorder, histrionic personality disorder, and antisocial personality disorder as potentially relevant factors.

The Most Likely Scenario: Multiple Overlapping Motivations

If the allegations are true, the psychological factors that may have motivated Greene’s behavior, her need for attention, desire for significance, possible personality pathology, situational stressors, and recognition of potential rewards in the contemporary political environment, are complex and multifaceted.

Greene’s motivation may have involved both internal psychological needs (attention, significance, identity) and external rewards (media coverage, political celebrity, career advancement). Hate crime hoaxes thrive in a culture of victimhood. Whether the hoaxer has a personal motive (fame, sympathy, or support) or a political one (mobilizing allies to fight a common enemy or perceived injustice), they succeed with audiences who want to believe.

Greene may have believed that:

1. The story would be believed, given her position and the permanent physical evidence.

2. Investigation would be minimal given the dramatic presentation and her co-conspirator’s corroboration.

3. Even if some doubted the story, the scars would make definitive disproof difficult.

4. The narrative fit current political dynamics well enough to gain traction before undergoing much scrutiny.

5. The rewards (attention, significance, career advancement, political celebrity) outweighed the risks.

But it didn’t work. Investigators saw through it quickly; those professional-looking cuts, the planted evidence in her car, the logical holes in the story. Within days, maybe hours, they knew something was very wrong.

CONCLUSION

The peer-reviewed literature on false hate crimes and victimization-seeking behavior provides a framework for thinking about potential motives; attention-seeking, political mobilization, maladaptive personality traits, and the cultural currency of victim status may all play potential roles.

Greene’s chosen narrative likely would have been valuable if believed, generating attention, sympathy, and opportunities in conservative political circles while positioning her as a martyr who literally bears scars from opposing the political left.

But the execution was fatally flawed. Professional investigators quickly identified inconsistencies; physical evidence contradicted her narrative, the body modification artist’s cooperation provided definitive proof, and Greene now faces up to ten years in federal prison.

The scars on Green’s face are permanent. They may fade over time, but will probably never completely disappear. The legal scars on her record, if she’s convicted, will also be permanent. The reputational damage is already done, regardless of the trial’s outcome.

And the question of why - or if - someone with so much promise made such extreme, self-destructive choices remains unanswered. The case has yet to be adjudicated. If the allegations are substantiated, it’s likely a tangled web of psychology and politics, and the dangerous intersection of personal pathology with cultural dynamics that reward victimhood and punish accountability.

References

U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of New Jersey. (2025, November 19). Employee of a federal official charged with conspiracy to falsely report a violent attack and giving false statements to law enforcement [Press release]. U.S. Department of Justice. https://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/pr/employee-federal-official-charged-conspiracy-falsely-report-violent-attack-and-giving

U.S. v. Greene, No. 25-mj-7126 (D.N.J. filed Nov. 19, 2025) (criminal complaint).

Greve, K. W., & Ord, J. S. (2022). The other face of illness-deception: Diagnostic criteria for factitious disorder with proposed standards for clinical practice and research. Psychological Injury and Law, 15(2), 123-145. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12207-022-09449-w

Reilly, W. (2019). Hate crime hoax: How the left is selling a fake race war. Regnery Publishing.

Reilly, W. (2020). Hate crime hoaxes and why they happen. Commentary Magazine. https://www.commentarymagazine.org/articles/wilfred-reilly/hate-crime-hoaxes-why-they-happen/

Russell-Brown, K. K. (1998). The Color of Crime: Racial hoaxes, white fear, black protectionism, police harassment, and other macroaggressions. New York University Press.

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Weiler, S. M., Tetzlaff, B.-O., Herzberg, P. Y., & Jacobsen, T. (2021). When personality gets under the skin: Need for uniqueness and body modifications. PLOS ONE, 16(3), e0245158. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245158

Yates, G. P., & Feldman, M. D. (2016). Factitious disorder: A systematic review of 455 cases in the professional literature. General Hospital Psychiatry, 41, 20-28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2016.05.002

Balk, G. (2025, November 19). Woman who worked for N.J. Congressman Van Drew charged with false report of violent political attack. The Philadelphia Inquirer. https://www.inquirer.com/crime/jeff-van-drew-staffer-hoax-attack-20251119.html

Corsentino, M. (2025, November 19). From Van Drew aide to federal defendant: Ocean City woman accused of bizarre staged anti-Trump attack. NJ 101.5. https://nj1015.com/natalie-greene-federal-charges/

Kopp, E. (2025, November 19). Former House GOP aide charged with faking a violent political attack on herself. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/former-jeff-van-drew-aide-charged-faking-violent-political-attack-rcna244905

Williams, P. (2025, November 19). Ex-Van Drew staffer staged fake attack, writing ‘Trump Whore’ across her stomach. New Jersey Globe. https://newjerseyglobe.com/congress/van-drew-staffer-staged-fake-attack-writing-trump-whore-across-her-stomach-and-alleging-men-held-her-down-and-cut-her-body/

Thank you for your interest in this issue of The Mind Detective. If you’re interested in forensic psychology and true crime, or know someone who is, please pass it along to one true-crime-following friend.