Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) was the victim of a “swatting” call on Christmas Day.
The congresswoman reported this week that someone placed a fake emergency call on Christmas Day, hoping that police and other emergency personnel would arrive at her home and cause a disturbance or potential accidental harm while her family celebrated the holiday.
And after today, I have been swatted 8 times but the FBI can’t seem to figure out who is responsible for the swatting and says the law doesn’t allow them to track them down.
The FBI can do so many things, has even abused FISA to spy on hundreds of thousands of Americans, but can…
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) December 25, 2023
MTG, as the congresswoman is commonly known, wrote on the social media platform X that she’s been the subject of swatting instances eight times. Local police in Georgia confirmed that the swatting event did take place this week.
Previous swatting incidents included a report that a shooting was taking place outside of MTG’s home. In that particular incident, police responded to her home before determining it was a false report.
Swatting is the practice of someone placing a fake call to emergency services in the hopes that major law enforcement agencies respond to the home. It’s very difficult for these agencies to know that the call is fake, so they typically come with significant force in preparation for the worst-case scenario.
Rodney Bailey, who works for the police department in Rome, Ga., said a person who was located in Rome, N.Y., called a suicide hotline and claimed he shot his girlfriend at MTG’s Georgia home. He then threatened that he was going to take his own life.
Before dispatching emergency services to the congresswoman’s home, local police contacted a security liaison for MTG so she could be made aware of the call. The security team said that an emergency response was not necessary, Bailey said, so police canceled their planned response.
Greene wasn’t the only member of Congress who was subject of a swatting incident on Christmas Day.
Rep. Brandon Williams (R-NY) also posted on X that he was the subject of a swatting incident at his home. When local and state police left his home, he said they “left with homemade cookies and spiced nuts.”
That incident is still under investigation by the Cayuga County Sheriff’s Office in New York.
According to the office, law enforcement personnel responded on Christmas afternoon after they received a fake report that was placed by an unknown caller, claiming a shooting was taking place at the address.
