The Treasury Department, on behalf of federal law enforcement after January 6, 2021, asked banks to snoop through customers’ transactions for signs of “extremism,” such as purchases of “small arms” or from gun retailers Dick’s Sporting Goods, Bass Pro Shop, or Cabela’s, according to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).
Jordan revealed the secret requests on Thursday in a letter to the former Director of the Treasury Department’s office of Stakeholder Integration and Engagement in the Strategic Operations Division of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) Noah Bishoff.
We now know the federal government flagged terms like “MAGA” and “TRUMP,” to financial institutions if Americans completed transactions using those terms. What was also flagged? If you bought a religious text, like a BIBLE, or shopped at Bass Pro Shop. – Rep. Jim Jordan on X
#BREAKING: Federal Government Flagged Transactions Using Terms like “MAGA” and “TRUMP” for Financial Institutions Individuals who shopped at stores like Cabela’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods, or purchased religious texts like a bible, may also have had their transactions flagged.
Jordan’s letter, which asked Bishoff to appear for a transcribed interview, said, “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 doubts about FinCEN’s respect for fundamental civil liberties.”
The secret requests were found as part of Judiciary Committee and Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government oversight on federal law enforcement’s receipt of information about American citizens without legal process.
Jordan said in the letter that the Committee and Select Subcommittee obtained documents indicating that following January 6, 2021, FinCEN distributed materials to banks that outlined the “Typologies” of “various persons of interest” and provided financial institutions with suggested search terms and Merchant Category Codes (MCCs) for identifying transactions on behalf of federal law enforcement.
Jordan said the materials included a document recommending the use of generic terms like “TRUMP” and “MAGA” to “Search Zelle payment messages,” as well as a “prior FinCEN analysis” of “Lone Actor/Homegrown Violent Extremism Indicators.”
According to the analysis, 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.
“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,” Jordan wrote.
Jordan said FinCEN also distributed slides prepared by one bank explaining how other banks could use MCCs to detect customers whose transactions may reflect “potential active shooters, [and] who may include dangerous International Terrorists / Domestic Terrorists / Homegrown Violent Extremists (‘Lone Wolves’).”
Read more at: breitbart.com