The federal government asked financial institutions to rummage through customer data if terms such as "MAGA" or "Trump" were used in transactions, the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government revealed Wednesday, citing documents it obtained.
Transactions might also have been flagged by individuals who shopped at stores such as Cabela's or Dick's Sporting Goods, or purchased religious texts like a Bible, the committee said in a news release.
"This kind of pervasive financial surveillance, carried out in coordination with and at the request of federal law enforcement, into Americans' private transactions is alarming and raises serious concerns about the FBI's respect for fundamental civil liberties," the committee said.
In a letter Wednesday to FBI Director Christopher Wray, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chair of the House Judiciary Committee and the select subcommittee, said he is seeking a transcribed interview from Peter Sullivan, senior private sector partner for outreach in the Strategic Partner Engagement Section of the FBI, no later than Jan. 31.
Jordan wrote testimony revealed in 2021, Bank of America (BoA) provided the FBI — "voluntarily and without any legal process" — with a list of individuals who made transactions in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area using a BoA credit or debit card between Jan. 5 and Jan. 7, 2021. Jordan wrote Steve Jensen, the FBI's then-section chief of the Domestic Terrorism Operations section, pulled the BoA information from FBI systems because "the leads lacked allegations of federal criminal conduct."
"Documents obtained by the Committee and Select Subcommittee also show that FBI personnel, including Mr. Sullivan, made contact with and provided BoA with specific search query terms, indicating that it was 'interested in all financial relationships' of BoA customers transacting in Washington D.C., and customers who had made 'ANY historical purchase' of a firearm, or who had purchased a hotel, Airbnb, or airline travel within a given date range."
Jordan also wrote a letter Wednesday to Noah Bishoff, former director of the Office of Stakeholder Integration and Engagement in the Strategic Operations Division of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), seeking him to appear in front of the committee for a transcribed interview no later than Jan. 31.
In his letter to Bishoff, Jordan wrote "FinCEN distributed materials to financial institutions that, among other things, outline the 'typologies' of various persons of interest and provide financial institutions with suggested search terms and Merchant Category Codes for identifying transactions on behalf of federal law enforcement."
"FinCEN warned financial institutions of 'extremism' indicators that include 'transportation charges, such as bus tickets, rental cars, or plane tickets, for travel to areas with no apparent purpose,' or 'the purchase of books [including religious texts] and subscriptions to other media containing extremist views,'" Jordan wrote. "In other words, FinCEN urged large financial institutions to comb through the private transactions of their customers for suspicious charges on the basis of protected political and religious expression."
The FBI declined to comment in an email to Newsmax.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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