How Marjorie Taylor Greene's Request For A DOJ Probe Into Tesla Protests Could Violate House Rules

Forbes

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) may have violated House ethics rules on Wednesday by calling on the Department of Justice and FBI to investigate protests against Tesla–a company in which she has a financial interest, buying stock in it as recently as earlier this month. Forbes staff writer Zach Everson joins Brittany Lewis on "Forbes Talks" to discuss.   Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacheverson/2025/03/13/marjorie-taylor-greene-tesla-elon-musk-doge-department-justice-fbi-stock/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  0:00 Introduction 3:36 What Does The House Of Ethics Committee Say About Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's Interest In Tesla 6:04 Tesla & Elon Musk's Latest Stock Plummet  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Hi, everybody. I'm Brittany Lewis, a breaking news reporter here at Forbes. Joining me now

00:07is my Forbes colleague, staff writer Zach Everson. Zach, thanks so much for joining

00:11me.

00:12Thanks for having me, Brittany.

00:14You have some reporting on Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. You're saying that she could

00:19have violated House ethics rules. Can you explain?

00:23Sure. So she recently, all of the demonstrations going on against Tesla and Elon Musk, from

00:33her position as the chair of the Doge subcommittee in the House, wrote a letter asking the Department

00:39of Justice and the FBI to investigate what is causing those protests. Representative

00:46Greene owned shares in Tesla. So expert I spoke to said that could be problematic because

00:52members of Congress are not supposed to take official action, which may have a financial

00:57benefit for them. And that certainly can be the case, given her stake in Tesla.

01:02I want to first talk about the Tesla portion of this. Elon Musk, as we know, is the CEO

01:06of that company, and he's become more and more of a polarizing figure as of late with

01:12the Doge cuts and the influence he seemingly has on both the Trump administration and the

01:16president himself. So can you talk to us about these Tesla protests?

01:22Yeah. So Elon Musk took a position back in July, shortly after the attempted assassination

01:27of Donald Trump, that he became a big Trump supporter all in, spent about $250 million

01:34trying to help Trump win the election. And then, you know, as Trump won, he put Elon

01:40Musk in charge of Doge, which is looking for government efficiencies, places to cut. There

01:45have been major cuts, both in terms of services and in government employees. As a result,

01:50you're starting to see some protests against Tesla. Many of them are peaceful, where they're

01:55just demonstrations outside of dealerships. You're also hearing about people who are putting

02:00fires on Teslas. There are a couple, a few incidences where there have been some violence,

02:05whether it's been vandalism, or I believe in one case, there was also arson involved

02:10on a Tesla.

02:12I want you to talk to us and go through her history, Marjorie Hiller Greene's history

02:18with Tesla stock, how much Tesla stock that she owned now compared to before Elon Musk

02:23was this ardent Trump supporter, and before she became chair of the House Doge subcommittee.

02:31So she has a really interesting history here with Tesla. Now, when she came to Congress,

02:35she had between 15,000 and 50,000 shares in the company. But by the end of 2022, if she

02:43had any holdings in that, it was less than a thousand dollars, meaning she wouldn't need

02:46to be reported. She would need to report it. She did get divorced that year. So it seems

02:50most likely that her ex-husband got the Tesla shares in a divorce settlement. We don't know

02:55for sure. I reached out. They did not answer. So she started off owning less than a thousand

03:01dollars worth of Tesla in 2023. But by September 2024, when Musk increasingly was backing Trump,

03:10she started buying some shares. So she bought, made nine separate purchases of Tesla, totaling

03:15anywhere from $9,000 to $135,000. Now, why is it such a big range? It's because the House

03:22clerk's office doesn't require, the House doesn't require them to report specific amounts.

03:26They get broad ranges they can report it in. Most of her purchases, or rather all of her

03:31purchases fill in the $1,000 to $15,000 range.

03:36And now you have her writing on X posting, hey, DOJ, look into this, things like that.

03:43How exactly does this, could this bend the rules according to the House Ethics Committee?

03:49Right. Well, I mean, it's not a good look. It's not a good look that she is saying, you

03:54know, making pro-Tesla statements, making, you know, sending that letter under official

03:59capacity to DOJ and FBI. You know, it's also not a good look that she was appointed to

04:07be the head of the DOJ subcommittee back in November. Five of her Tesla stock purchases

04:11happened after that. So it was at a point where she knew that she would be supposed

04:15to have an oversight position over DOJ and she's buying stock in Tesla at that point.

04:20Now, what might happen with this is anybody's guess. You know, the Office of Congressional

04:26Ethics could look into this if they so chose. The House Committee on Ethics could look into

04:31this. You know, any punishment would have to be doled out by the House Committee, which

04:35is a bipartisan group. They don't have a great track record with implementing or with enforcing

04:41rules. So who knows what, if anything, will happen out of this?

04:44Let's talk about that a little bit, because whenever you and I talk about the House Ethics

04:48Committee, we always have the caveat of no one really likes being on this because who

04:53wants to snitch on a colleague? Is there any precedence here? What have they gotten a fellow

05:00congress member in trouble before for a similar action? What does that look like?

05:06Yeah, so there is a history of this. It wasn't stocks. But back in 2012, Representative Shelley

05:11Berkeley, a Democrat out of Nevada, the House Ethics Committee that she had improperly used

05:17her official position for her to benefit financially, when she reached out to government agencies

05:23on behalf of her husband's medical practice, trying to get them to pay up money that he

05:29believed he was owed. So they did flag her for that. So there is a precedent for that.

05:34Not exactly stock trading, but 2012 is a long time ago in terms of United States politics.

05:41I'm curious. I'm sure you reached out to her office regarding this story. Did they respond?

05:47They did. They did. They didn't. After publication, they got back to me and the quote from her

05:53spokesperson Nick Dyer was, it's about domestic terrorist attacks, Zach. You are nothing more

05:58than a Democrat troll. Enough out of you, which was somewhat amusing.

06:04Well, Zach, I don't want enough out of you because I still have a few more questions.

06:08So let's talk about Tesla stock. I'm curious how her shares are doing since you purchased

06:12them. Elon Musk, as we said, he's become increasingly controversial over the past couple of months,

06:18especially since he became really the face of Doge. How has Tesla been performing?

06:25It's not doing well. It is down to, last I checked, about $233 a share when it hit was

06:32over $400 at one point. We don't know exactly whether she's made money, whether Representative

06:38Greene has made money on this. Again, because it is done in such broad ranges between $1,000

06:43and $15,000 were her purchases. We do know that she made nine separate purchases and

06:50seven of those purchases, the stock price that day was at a price that is higher than

06:54what it currently is. So it certainly seems like she lost money, but we don't know for

06:58sure.

07:00And what about Elon Musk? We know from Forbes is reporting that he is the richest man in

07:04the world, the richest person in the world. Is Tesla's stock price affecting his bottom

07:10line?

07:11Yeah, it certainly is. He's only worth $325 billion right now, Brittany. So it's certainly

07:17hurting his line, bottom line. In fact, from the time I wrote the draft of this article

07:22to the time I gave it one last fact check, he had lost $5 billion. So, yeah, he's not

07:28doing well. I haven't seen any GoFundMe's up there, though, to help out poor Elon.

07:33Well, I'm sure you will keep us posted. Zach Everson, thank you for your reporting.

07:37My pleasure, Brittany. Thanks.

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