At the end of April 2025, a rumor began to spread that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, had bought shares of Palantir Technologies — a company that sells data analytics platforms for intelligence gathering and surveillance — days before U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced it awarded a $30 million contract to the company.
One user shared the claim and underscored the fact that Greene sits on the House Committee on Homeland Security, which oversees the agency of which ICE is a part, adding that Palantir's stock had soared since she made the trade (archived) in a post reading, "This is pretty wild. Marjorie Taylor Greene bought stock in Palantir on April 8th. On April 17th, a $30M deal between Palantir and ICE was announced. Greene sits on the House Committee on Homeland Security. The stock has now risen 48% in the three weeks since her purchase."
As of this writing, the post had garnered 4.4 million views and 29,000 likes. Other X posts relayed the same rumor.
Indeed, a review of Greene's financial disclosures revealed that Palantir stock was purchased in her name in early April, days before ICE announced it had contracted Palantir for its activities. Further, Palantir's stock increased 60% from the day she acquired the shares to May 2, 2025. For this reason, we have deemed the claim true.
However, Greene said in an emailed statement that someone else manages her portfolio on her behalf and she learned about these trades "in the media."
According to Capitol Trades — a database that compiles all of the trades elected officials make — Greene acquired Palantir shares on April 7 and April 8, 2025. The disclosure reveals that she acquired between $1,000 and $15,000 of the shares for $77.32 a share on April 7 and $92.01 a share on April 8. The stock price had reached $124 a share at 2:38 p.m. on May 2, 2025. This represented a 60% increase from the first trade and a 34.8% increase from the second trade.
In addition, a search of the Federal Procurement Data System revealed that on April 11, 2025, ICE contracted Palantir for a surveillance system designed to prioritize people for deportation based on criminal activity and "visa overstay," track self-deportations and identify immigrants for deportation. ICE awarded Palantir $29,898,236 for this system. The deal was made public on April 17, 2025. ICE has contracted Palantir since 2022.
However, while several posts implied Greene's trades may have constituted insider trading, there was no evidence that she had advance knowledge of the deal. In fact, she said in an emailed statement that she gave up control of her portfolio to her financial advisor when she was elected:
After many successful years of running my own business, I ran for Congress to bring that mindset to Washington. Now that I'm proudly serving the people of Northwest Georgia, I have signed a fiduciary agreement to allow my financial advisor to control my investments. All of my investments are reported with full transparency. I refuse to hide my stock trades in a blind trust like many others do. I learned about my Palantir trades when I saw it in the media.
Further, while Greene sits on the House Committee on Homeland Security, she does not sit on the subcommittee that oversees ICE. Instead, she is a member of the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, which oversees "the Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A), the U.S. Secret Service (USSS), the Federal Protective Service (FPS), the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC), and the Office of Operations Coordination (OPS)."
The U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934 prohibits trading on potential market-moving information that hasn't been made public, known as insider trading. However, proving intent is key in such court proceedings.
Palantir was due to announce its first-quarter results on May 5, 2025. As of this writing, analysts forecast that the company's earnings had climbed 36% compared to the first quarter of 2024 to $863 million.