13 Banks Aided Federal Surveillance of Trump Supporters

(LibertySociety.com) – The House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government recently sent a letter to multiple financial institutions suspected of working with the federal government to hunt down Trump supporters after the Capitol riot on January 6.

The committee, chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is investigating 13 banks that seemingly spied on American citizens by searching for specific transactions that contained Trump’s name or MAGA. Investigators warned the institutions that any purchases with those terms or “religious texts” could suggest that an individual held extremist views.

The committee was already investigating six of those institutions, which comprise some of the largest banks in the country. Now, seven others have been added to the mix, including Western Union, Charles Schwab, and PayPal. The committee believes that the FBI, along with the United States Treasury’s FinCEN, were able to obtain private financial transactions without a warrant. The additional institutions were asked to hand over documents and other materials to the committee. Jordan also wrote a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to express concerns about respecting “Americans’ privacy and fundamental civil liberties.”

One former FBI liaison who was interviewed by members of the committee said that federal agencies set the guidelines for financial institutions regarding the types of transactions that should be flagged in a suspicious activity report (SAR). The committee has already proven that Bank of America complied with the demands and provided private financial data of more than 200 individuals. The committee believes that the other institutions were sought out and potentially complied with the same requests from the federal government.

FinCEN also encouraged banks to look for extremists by searching for purchases at sporting goods stores like Bass Pro Shops. Jordan previously said that the government created profiles for individuals it had flagged. Those profiles were stored in a portal that was shared with more than 650 companies. Other companies targeted by the investigation include GoFundMe and Eventbrite.