Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene receives $12K fine from FEC

Georgia Republican firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has been fined by the Federal Election Commission over claims of unlawful fundraising involving an affiliated political action committee (PAC), as The Hill reports.

The sanction, in the amount of $12,000, was announced in a conciliation agreement recently published by the agency.

Details of controversy

According to the FEC, Green ran afoul of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 by “soliciting non-federal funds” via improper crossover between her official communications and that of the “Stop Socialism Now PAC.”

Greene stood accused of reposting an advertisement for the PAC in which she appeared, doing so on official Greene for Congress social media pages.

The PAC itself used the ad spot in its own YouTube, social media feeds and website, and in it, Greene spoke about the 2021 Senate runoff in Georgia, trying to raise funds to help defeat Democratic Party candidates.

The Federal Election Campaign Act precludes “federal candidates and officeholders, their agents, and entities directly or indirectly established, financed, maintained or controlled by or acting on behalf of federal candidates and officeholders, from soliciting funds in connection with a federal election 'unless the funds are subject to the limitations, prohibitions, and reporting requirements of the Act.'”

In the FEC's estimation, Greene engaged in prohibited solicitation of non-federal funds by reposting the ad in which she actively seeks financial contributions and urges viewers to make donations through on-screen text.

According to The Hill, the agreement reached with Greene was accepted early last month, and the congresswoman was afforded 30 days from its effective date to achieve compliance.

Greene in the news

The FEC fine is not the only reason Greene has found herself in the news in recent weeks, as Fox News notes, with the lawmaker claiming that she was swatted for the eighth time earlier this month.

“Swatting” is a practice in which individuals make false phone reports to emergency responders and send authorities to another individuals' home address, often in hopes that things will escalate, and harm will occur to the targeted person.

Declaring the phenomenon – which has plagued a host of conservative politicians and personalities – “extremely serious,” Greene has expressed concerns that the events are part of a larger, highly-coordinated strategy on which the country's current leaders do not have a handle.

“I've started to ask: is this an attack on our government, as well as an attack on the police? And is the Biden administration capable of handling what is happening with the attempted assassinations on government officials because we know the Biden administration is not capable of stopping the invasion at the southern border which has surely brought terrorists to our country,” Greene said.