The Daily Beast caught the hypocritical conflict of interest. It found that four days after calling for a government shutdown to stop government spending, Greene bought between $250,000 and $500,000 in U.S. Treasury bills, i.e. the securities that essentially lend the government money so it can keep operating and spending.
It turns out that the threats made by Greene and her fellow GOP extremists to the faith and credit of the United States gave her a nice financial windfall. From The Daily Beast:
[T]he possibility of a government default last fall made investors skittish, and the rhetoric from Greene and fellow Republicans injected further risk into the markets. As a result, yields were on the rise right around the time Greene made her purchase, then fell after the crisis passed, according to Treasury Department data.
What a coincidence!
Greene is not denying any role in the purchase(s). Nor did she express any displeasure over them.
Asked about the investment, a spokesperson for Greene’s office provided a statement which said, in full, that “Congresswoman Greene has an investment advisor that has full discretionary authority over her account.”
The statement did not say who had executed the purchase or made the decision to do so, and the spokesperson did not reply when asked in a follow-up email. The spokesperson also did not respond to follow-ups about whether the adviser was aware of Greene’s ideology and routine fiscal bombast, or if the agent still retained her confidence.
