Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who I wish to emphasize doesn’t symbolize my district, is mad. This is not new, in fact. She’s at all times mad about one thing. This time round, although, it is individuals exercising their Constitutionally assured proper to protest outdoors Tesla dealerships. After Trump claimed he would prosecute anyone arrested in reference to the protests as home terrorists, Greene announced on Twitter that she’d despatched a letter to each Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel demanding they open an investigation into the protests, insisting that “Assaults on Tesla have to be investigated as home terrorism!” Not property. Tesla the corporate.
Within the hooked up letter, Greene mentions the “wave of organized assaults concentrating on Elon Musk” earlier than pivoting to claims of property injury. And he or she’s appropriate that there have been a couple of incidents the place unhealthy actors have clearly damaged the legislation, together with setting a couple of parked Cybertrucks on hearth. After all, then she started complaining concerning the alleged involvement of Antifa, an imaginary home terror group Republicans insist coordinates the violent protests that actually burned down a number of main U.S. cities in 2020 (oh wait, that did not occur, both). The half the place a lot of the legal exercise that truly did occur round protests that summer time ended up being traced back to right-wing instigators trying to undermine the motion at all times appears to get ignored, too.
Oh, and naturally she needed to repeat Musk’s ridiculous declare the cost processing platform numerous left-leaning organizations use to gather donations from people is a few form of nefarious scheme.
Learn extra: Tesla Recalls Almost Every Car It’s Sold In The US
Guidelines For Thee However Not For Me
marjorie taylor greene home terrorism tweet
Greene made a reputation for herself being one of many loudest and dumbest Republicans in Congress, so it is no shock that she’d try and curry favor with Musk, however she can also produce other motivations. Particularly, she spent some huge cash shopping for Tesla inventory, and would not it, as public sentiment turns in opposition to Musk, the worth of his meme stock retains dropping. As of the time of writing, TSLA is down greater than 36 % for the yr, which is sweet information for those who’re somebody who desires unhealthy issues to occur to Musk however horrible information for those who’re somebody hoping the road would by no means cease going up.
When Forbes looked into Greene’s monetary disclosures, it discovered that whereas she owned lower than $1,000 of Tesla inventory on the finish of 2023, she began shopping for extra in September 2024 after Musk went mask-off and threw his full weight behind Trump. Greene made 9 purchases in complete, and whereas it is not clear from the disclosure precisely how a lot she invested, the whole worth falls between $9,000 and $135,000. Forbes additionally discovered that 5 of these inventory purchases happened after Greene was positioned on the Home committee created to work with Musk and his elite group of broccoli-haired teenagers.
Whereas that was already fairly sketchy at greatest, it wasn’t essentially unlawful. The letter she despatched, nevertheless, probably crossed an moral line specified by the House code of conduct. “The letter may increase a critical ethics subject for Consultant Greene,” marketing campaign finance lawyer Brett Kappel informed Forbes. “Home ethics guidelines prohibit a member from taking any official motion that will profit her personal monetary curiosity.” Then once more, ethics solely matter if there are precise penalties for unethical conduct, and there isn’t any method Mike forking Johnson goes to do something about ethics violations inside his personal celebration, even for those who’d suppose moral conduct can be an enormous deal for the so-called party of family values.
Blurring Authorized Strains
Tesla protest – Spencer Platt/Getty Pictures
Even for those who totally help the Tesla Takedown protests and wish to see Musk out of the White Home, largely broke and residing out of a damaged down Cybertruck, crimes are nonetheless crimes. Placing different individuals in danger is incorrect, nevertheless it additionally performs into the palms of Republicans who’re determined to make use of property injury to justify going after peaceable protesters exercising their First Modification rights. And the extra they succeed at convincing the general public that anti-Musk protesters are all violent terrorists, the extra help there will probably be for charging peaceable protest as home terrorists. Republicans have already had one individual arrested on U.S. soil as a result of they did not like his speech, and there isn’t any motive to suppose they’re going to cease with authorized everlasting residents.
Georgia protection lawyer Lawrence J. Zimmerman did verify to me in a short cellphone name that, contemplating Musk’s present function within the administration, it is conceivable that destroying Tesla autos, showrooms, or chargers may meet the necessities specified by the current definition of domestic terrorism. Whether or not or not the prosecutor may really get a conviction can be a completely separate subject, however the Justice Division bringing the costs would not be unimaginable. Charging common protesters as terrorists, although, would probably be, uh, how would the New York Instances put this, “a daring departure from beforehand established norms.” So so long as protesters keep on the not-blowing-anything-up-or-burning-anything-down facet of the legislation, Greene and all of Elon’s bizarre nerds are simply going to have to remain mad about them making the road go down.
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