Image of Marjorie Taylor Greene post on Trump trial is from parody account | Fact check
The claim: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green said judge ‘forced’ Trump to delete Stormy Daniels post
A May 3 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) includes a screenshot of a statement on X, formerly Twitter, seemingly from Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
“Judge Merchan has FORCED Donald Trump to delete this post from Truth Social,” reads the start of the post, a reference to the judge in the former president's hush money trial. “IT WOULD BE A SHAME IF WE MADE IT VIRAL. YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO.”
It includes a screenshot of Trump's Truth Social post from April 10 in which he embedded Stormy Daniels’ 2018 statement denying an affair with him.
The Facebook post was shared more than 150 times in 10 days.
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Our rating: False
No such post appears on Greene’s official or personal X accounts. It is from a parody account that her spokesperson said is unaffiliated with Greene.
Greene did criticize Trump judge on personal X account
Neither Greene's personal nor official X accounts include the statement.
The post matches one on April 30 from @MTGrepp, the full handle of which cannot be seen in the Facebook image. The page’s full title and bio both label it as a parody account.
The profile is "not affiliated with Congresswoman Greene," spokesperson Nick Dyer said.
The Facebook post is an example of what could be called "stolen satire," where social media posts written as satire and presented that way originally are reposted in a way that makes them appear to be legitimate news. As a result, readers of the second-generation post are misled, as was the case here.
Greene did, however, mention Judge Juan Merchan in an April 30 post from her personal account that described him as “totally corrupt and conflicted.” It goes on to suggest Merchan has a conflict of interest in the case because of his daughter’s job with a company that works with Democratic political candidates and organizations, which Greene characterizes as "working directly for Joe Biden.
The New York State Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics refuted that suggestion in a May 2023 document that said Merchan’s impartiality “cannot reasonably be questioned based on the judge’s relative’s business and/or political activities.”
Fact check: Video shows Greene questioning witness, not Merrick Garland crying
Trump’s post included a 2018 statement from Stormy Daniels that the former president falsely claimed was “just found” as the hush money trial was underway. Daniels denies having an affair with Trump in the statement, which was published in January 2018 and has been covered by numerous news outlets in the years since, USA TODAY reported.
Daniels later said the statement was a “lie” and that she felt pressured to sign it out of fear of legal repercussions.
The Truth Social post was included in an April list of 10 alleged violations of Trump’s gag order, USA TODAY reported. Merchan found Trump in criminal contempt for nine of them, including the post with Daniels' statement, and ordered him on April 30 to pay $1,000 per violation as well as delete the posts, according to court documents.
The post about Daniels was later removed.
USA TODAY has debunked an array of claims about Greene, including false claims that she quoted Adolf Hitler's statements on Christianity in a July 2022 speech, that an authentic video shows her holding a "bloodbath" sign and that a video shows her impeaching Attorney General Merrick Garland.
USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Our fact-check sources:
Nick Dyer, May 10, Email exchange with USA TODAY
@mtgreenee, accessed May 10, X account search
@MTGrepp, accessed May 10, X account
@RepMTG, accessed May 10, X account search
Supreme Court of the State of New York, April 30, DECISION and ORDER – People’s Motion for Contempt
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Purported MTG post on Trump trial is from parody account | Fact check
