Did Nick Shirley prove Marjorie Taylor Greene was bribed to oppose Trump? Don't be fooled

Throughout 2026, a rumor circulated online that independent online journalist Nick Shirley has evidence that former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene received money to "switch sides" and oppose President Donald Trump.

For example, on May 22, an Instagram user posted a graphic (archived) featuring two photos, one of Shirley and one of Greene, and text that read, "Nick Shirley says he has proof that MTG was bribed to switch sides." The post's caption read, in part:

Marjorie Taylor Greene didn't just wake up one morning and have a change of heart. It took months of negotiations and a $14 million settlement for her to betray her country and her president.

Citizen journalist Nick Shirley said on his podcast that he has already sent his research to the FBI in Georgia.

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Dave Taylor (@temp2165)

The claim also spread on other platforms, such as Facebook (archived, archived). Some users seemed to interpret the rumor of Greene receiving a settlement and being under FBI investigation as true. Snopes readers also contacted us to investigate its legitimacy.

On Nov. 22, 2025, Greene announced she was resigning from Congress, with her last day being Jan. 5, 2026. Since then, she has been critical of the Trump administration, often citing the president's reluctance to release the full trove of documents relating to the case of late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

To investigate the rumor's legitimacy, we first used search engines such as DuckDuckGo (archived), Google (archived) and Yahoo (archived). If Greene really was under investigation or had accepted a bribe or settlement, journalists with reputable news outlets, such as The Associated Press or Reuters, would have widely reported on such a story and those search inquiries would have uncovered such evidence. That was not the case.

There is no credible reporting about Greene receiving a settlement or Shirley making any claims about Greene. In addition, the posts list fictional statements and people. For example, all the posts include a quote allegedly from "Atlanta Special Agent in Charge Joseph Barron." However, the FBI Atlanta page shows Marlo Graham as the Special Agent in Charge (archived).

The original source of the rumor is a Facebook page called America's Last Line of Defense, which Snopes has extensively covered in the past. The page first posted a version of the claim on March 30 (archived). ALLOD's bio describes the account as featuring "AI-free trollery and propaganda for cash."

The page's profile banner (archived) expands on this mission and reads:

Nothing on this page is Real. America's Last Line Of Defense (ALLOD) is a satire site along with its sister site America Loves Liberty. It was created by the well known internet troll Christopher Blair aka Busta Troll. It was created to monetize content from gullible MAGA and right-wing Facebook users. The picture has the watermark saying "Nothing on this page is Real."

ALLOD's post also includes a watermark in the bottom right corner stating, "Everything on this page is fiction." Similar watermarks are visible in every post we reviewed. 

It should be noted that the Instagram post mentioned above copied a post (archived) from a Facebook page called America Loves Liberty. That Facebook page is also part of ALLOD's satirical network of social media accounts.

We reached out to America's Last Line of Defense for its response to the fact that some people mistook the satirical claim as real news. We will update this article if we receive a response.

Snopes has debunked numerous satirical rumors that have originated from ALLOD, including a claim that NBC host Kristen Welker was suspended after Trump abruptly ended an interview with her. We also investigated a rumor that Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren sold 20,000 shares in Spirit Airlines two weeks before the carrier went out of business.

Since the effectiveness of satire is subjective, we use "originated as satire" or "labeled satire" ratings based on creators' description of their work. It's your call on whether you agree.