Marjorie Taylor Greene Questioned Over Stock Market Investments

Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene denied personally trading stocks last year, after figuring in a recent report as being among the members of Congress who have seen the value of their stocks and shares portfolios increase the most in 2023.

Unusual Whales, a market analysis group, published a report on Tuesday showing the members of Congress who obtained the most profits from the stock market in 2023. "Like every year since 2020, U.S. politicians beat the market," Unusual Whales wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"And many in Congress made unusually timed trades resulting in huge gains," the group said, posting a graph showing "the top performers" of last year.

Newsweek contacted Greene's spokesperson and Unusual Whales for comment by email on Wednesday.

Returns for members of Congress were calculated by Unusual Whales by estimating the current stocks held in each member's portfolio and then calculating year-to-date returns. These profits were compared to the SPDR S&P 500 Exchange Traded Fund, also known as SPY, a security that tracks the stock index. The S&P 500, which saw strong gains in 2023, was up about 23 percent year to date.

Greene was one of the names in the group's list, which included a total of 100 members of Congress. The Georgia Republican was placed along the middle of the list, with 18.6 percent of returns on her trading, according to Unusual Whales, which means her portfolio underperformed the market.

The highest gains were made by Democrat Brian Higgins of New York, with 238.9 percent returns, followed by Republican Mark Green of Tennessee, with 122.2 percent.

Greene made no filing in 2023 to indicate she bought or sold shares, per financial disclosure reports of House members.

When asked about her trading in the stock market on Fox News on Tuesday by host Jesse Watters, Greene denied engaging in such an activity. "I actually asked my team about that today—why my name was on the list—because I don't even own any stocks and I haven't in all of 2023," she said.

"As a matter of fact, we have to report everything, including children who are dependent of ours," Greene said. "And I think what was reported was actually related to my son's account that his father and I set up for him years ago."

Greene shares three children—Lauren, Taylor and Derek—with her former husband, Perry Greene. Previous disclosure filings by Greene show her children own some shares. House members can disclose ownership of assets indicating if they are owned by themselves, their spouse or dependent children.

The Georgia congresswoman said that Unusual Whales' reporting was "not always accurate."

A clip of the interview shared on X sparked questions and mockery from social media users, some of whom accused Greene of using her son as an excuse to cover up her own trading.

"So she's feeding insider info to her son so he can have an illegal leg up when trading? Is that what she's saying?" wrote one user. "Ahhh, using your son a shell to buy and trade stocks," wrote another.

Some 19 members of Congress reported losses, with Republican Warren Davidson of Ohio suffering the biggest drop at 77.1 percent, followed by Republican Austin Scott of Georgia with 56.5 percent.

Democrats collectively made higher returns than their Republican colleagues, though the group also found that House Republicans filed much less financial transactions than Democratic lawmakers. According to the group, Democrats made a collective 31 percent gain, while Republicans made 18 percent.

Unusual Whales have been reporting on members of Congress trading in the stock market for years, in an attempt to get a conversation started about whether lawmakers should engage in the activity at all.

Members of Congress are forbidden from buying and selling stocks based on non-public information, but they're allowed to trade in stocks even when their legislation could influence a company's performance.

Update at 7:46 a.m. ET, 01/03/2024: This story was revised to add further context to the financial filings and the headline was updated to reflect these changes.