Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) blasted the federal government on Wednesday after the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government was exposed for flagging the words “Trump” and “MAGA” over consumer data.
According to Jordan, “Federal investigators asked banks to filter customer transactions by using terms like ‘MAGA’ and ‘Trump’ as part of their probe on the January 6 demonstration.
The Ohio representative expressed concerns over the “alarming” case of “pervasive financial surveillance” on the pretense of protected political speech.
The Subcommittee, in a letter, demanded former Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) officer Noah Bishoff testify over the committee on January 31.
In an interview with Eric Bolling “The Balance,” Jordan said, “You have big banks searching private transactions for key terms at the request of the federal government, and it looks like there was no warrant requirement. There was no legal process that was done. They just said, Get this information.”
Keywords used for these searches also isolate and target conservatives, including where the purchase has been made and what items the customer bought, such as Bible at a bookstore, a firearm at Dick’s Sporting Goods, or even a fishing license at Cabela’s or Bass Pro Shops.
The chairman of the committee described this as “really scary stuff,” and might get a regular American flagged as a “domestic potential violent extremist.”
Jordan also exposed how FinCEN passed its analysis of “Lone Actor/Homegrown Violent Extremism Indicators” to financial institutions as they attempted to mark ordinary consumers as possible suspects involved in the January 6 demonstration.
He added that anyone can be branded as an “extremist” for buying “bus tickets, rental cars or plane tickets to travel in areas with no apparent purpose.”
Buying religious texts and media subscriptions to media or platforms with extremist views are also flagged.
“In other words, FinCEN used 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.
He also revealed documents from FinCEN, prepared by Key Bank, which was distributed to other banks, explaining how they could use merchant category codes (MCC) to detect customers whose transactions may reflect “potential active shooters.”
“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 liberties.”
The House committee also invited Peter Sullivan who works at the Strategic Partner Engagement Section at the FBI.
According to Jordan, Bank of America has voluntarily submitted lists of individuals who made transactions in Washington DC using Bank of America’s credit or debit card from January 5 to January 7, 2021.
The committee also obtained documents from the FBI further instructing Bank of America to provide them with “all financial relationships” of BoA customers who transacted in Washington D.C and anyone who had made “any historical purchase of a firearm, or who had purchased a hotel, Airbnb, or airline travel within the given date range.”
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