In a bizarrely twisted and elaborate hoax, a former staffer for a New Jersey congressman is facing charges for allegedly staging a brutal attack against herself, made to look like a hate crime, including paying someone to carve wounds on her body and writing vile slurs against President Donald Trump and Congressman Jeff Van Drew.
According to a criminal complaint obtained by ABC News, 26-year-old Rutgers law student Natalie Greene, who previously worked for the Republican Rep. Van Drew, paid a body scarring expert to create wounds on her upper body to look as if she had been violently assaulted.
Investigators allege a co-conspirator called police on July 23, 2025, and reported that she and Greene were attacked at gunpoint by three men in a state park in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey.
When authorities found her in a wooded area of the park, Green’s hands and feet were bound with zip ties, her shirt was pulled up over her head and she had obscene slurs, including “TRUMP WHORE” on her stomach and “VAN DREW IS RACIST” on her back, written with a black marker.
But prosecutors say some details just weren’t adding up. They found zip ties in Greene’s car like the ones used to tie her up, and they discovered her co-conspirator had searched online for “zip ties near me,” ABC reported.
“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 and scarification artist to deliberately cut the lacerations on her face, neck, upper chest, and shoulder, based on a pattern that she had provided beforehand,” according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey.
The statement says that when responding officers found her, Greene was crying and yelling that one of her assailants had a gun and had threatened to shoot her. After receiving medical treatment, she told the same story to an FBI agent who was investigating the attack.
Court documents also revealed she told the agent she had been receiving threatening messages at work. When her phone was inspected, investigators allegedly found correspondence between Greene and a “body modification/scarification artist” in Pennsylvania, according to news outlets.
Greene, from Ocean City, New Jersey, made her first court appearance on charges of conspiracy to convey false statements and hoaxes and one count of making false statements to federal law enforcement on Nov. 19 and was released on a $200,000 bond.
Green’s attorney, Louis Barbone, told ABC News, “At the age of 26, my client served her community working full time to assist the constituents of the Congressman with loyalty and fidelity. She did that while being a full-time student. Under the law, she is presumed innocent and reserves all of her defenses for presentation in a court of law.”
In the meantime, Van Drew’s office also issued a statement. Spokesman Paxton Antonucci told NBC News, “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.”
Social media both skewered Greene and acknowledged that she needs psychological intervention.
“Poor girl,” X user Buddy wrote above a screenshot of Van Drew’s statement.
“After reading this I’m convinced that Jussie Smollett really failed to put effort into his hoax,” X user Scott Lee joked, referring to the actor who claimed he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack in 2019 in Chicago.
Another X user agreed, “Yeah, this girl was committed. Both to the fraud and hopefully to an asylum.”
“Wow. Now that’s deranged. Crime hoaxes need to be legally punished as severely as the real thing,” this X user stated.
If convicted, Green is facing a maximum of up to 10 years in prison on the two charges and up to a $500,000 fine.
