Marjorie Taylor Greene Rages at BLM Protesters Getting $500 Fine

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene criticized on Monday the criminal repercussions of two Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters receiving a $500 fine as she compared it to the repercussions of those involved in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot are receiving.

On January 6, hundreds of pro-Trump demonstrators stormed the U.S. Capitol building in an effort to stop Joe Biden's 2020 presidential election victory from being certified by Congress, which Donald Trump had repeatedly claimed, without evidence, was stolen from him. More than 1,100 people hailing from all 50 states have been charged with a variety of alleged offenses in relation to their presence at the grounds of Congress that day. Greene, a vocal Trump ally who has denied the legitimacy of the 2020 election and visited January 6 defendants in jail, previously claimed that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is out to get Trump and his supporters.

Meanwhile, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the BLM movement gained a massive surge in national traction with protests seen across the country after Minneapolis police officers killed George Floyd in 2020. The movement originally started to protest police brutality in 2013 with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old Black teenager in Florida.

On Monday, the Georgia Republican took to X, formerly Twitter, to reference two BLM protesters, who were charged with burning down an Atlanta Wendy's restaurant in 2020, as she shared her thoughts on the difference in criminal repercussions for them compared to those involved in the Capitol riot.

"J6'ers are being locked up for years for walking in the Capitol and some never walked inside at all, but the guys who plead guilty to arson and burned down the Wendy's in Atl in 2020 BLM riots only have to pay a $500 fine!!! The scales of Justice have tipped so hard one way they have fallen off!!!" Greene wrote on X.

Newsweek has reached out to Greene and BLM Atlanta via email for comment.

The referenced two BLM protesters, Natalie Hanna White and Chisom Kingston, were charged with setting a fire that destroyed the restaurant where Rayshard Brooks was shot and killed by Atlanta police officers during a confrontation outside the eatery in 2020.

Fulton County court records show that White and Kingston accepted plea deals on Thursday just days before they were expected to go to trial. Both pleaded guilty to first-degree arson and conspiracy to commit arson. As a result, each will have to pay a $500 fine, complete 150 hours of community service and serve five years probation.

As of October, about 561 federal defendants have had their cases adjudicated and received sentences for their criminal activity on January 6, with approximately 335 individuals having been sentenced to periods of incarceration.

In addition, about 119 defendants have been sentenced to a period of home detention, including approximately 19 who also were sentenced to a period of incarceration, according to a press release from the DOJ.

This is not the first time Greene has been vocal about the criminal repercussions of January 6 rioters as she previously warned that the DOJ's investigation into the insurrection is a "war on Trump" and all of his supporters.

"It truly is a war on Trump, and also anyone who supports Trump," she wrote on X last month. "Republicans must recognize the extreme nature of the politically weaponized DOJ and do everything we can to stop it!"