House Committee Probes Banks Alleged to Have Helped Feds Spy on Americans

by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The House Judiciary Committee and the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government have found evidence that the federal government coerced at least 13 banks into surrendering information about American citizens without a warrant.

The House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, chaired by Jim Jordan (R-OH), is probing allegations of collusion between U.S. banks and federal agencies following the Capitol riot of January 6.

The committee is investigating how the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) instructed financial institutions, such as Bank of America, Chase, Citi Bank, and Wells Fargo, to screen customers’ transactions for indicators of “extremism.”

Federal agencies were monitoring Trump supporters and Americans who shopped at retailers like Dick’s Sporting Goods, Bass Pro Shops, and Cabela’s, as well as those purchasing religious texts including the Bible.

On April 25, Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) issued letters to the 13 financial institutions, demanding they provide documents and communications. This included requests for disclosures of private financial records to federal authorities without legal process.

In the letters to the institutions, the committee expressed its concerns, stating “about how and to what extent federal law enforcement and financial institutions continue to spy on Americans by weaponizing backdoor information sharing and casting sprawling classes of transactions, purchase behavior, and protected political or religious expression as potentially suspicious or indicative of extremism.”

In a new interim report released on March 6, the committee claims to have discovered “startling evidence” that the federal government intrusively examined the private transactions of American consumers without specific evidence of criminal activity.

The report disclosed how the FinCEN provided materials to financial institutions that detailed how to use Merchant Category Codes (MCCs) for scrutinizing transactions to identify potential criminals or “extremists.”

These MCCs employ keywords to sift through purchases, focusing on items like “small arms” or transactions at recreational stores such as “Cabela’s,” “Bass Pro Shop,” and “Dick’s Sporting Goods.” Despite these transactions lacking any criminal connection, FinCEN appears to have labeled such Americans as potential threats, warranting surveillance.

Without the disclosures from FBI whistleblowers to the Committee and Select Subcommittee, this information would have remained undisclosed.

The committee report stated, “While it is alarming enough that federal law enforcement and Bank of America used January 6, 2021, as a pretext for surveilling potentially thousands of Americans without a warrant, the documents received by the Committee and Select Subcommittee show a pattern of financial surveillance aimed at millions of Americans who hold conservative viewpoints or simply exercise their Second Amendment rights. This raises serious concerns and doubts about federal law enforcement’s and financial institutions’ commitment to respecting Americans’ privacy rights and fundamental civil liberties. ”

The committee report noted how the federal government began a “fishing expedition for Americans’ financial data. Federal law enforcement agencies, including FinCEN and the FBI, treated lawful transactions as suspicious and shared information with financial institutions through backdoor channels, often circulating materials exhibiting a clear animus towards conservative viewpoints.”

Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.