Do you shop at Cabela’s, Bass Pro Shop, or Dick’s Sporting Goods? Your bank may be passing your purchase information to the federal government, especially if it can link you to support for Donald Trump or the term “MAGA.”
Many banks are surveilling their account holders, not because of criminal records or conduct, but because of their core political and religious expression, the House Judiciary Committee and Select Subcommittee said in a new report. The banks are alerting themselves to specific terms and transaction, sometimes involving the purchase of firearms.
Last year, the Committee and Select Subcommittee received testimony from retired Federal Bureau of Investigation Supervisory Intelligence Analyst George Hill. Hill testified that, following the events at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Bank of America , voluntarily and without legal process, provided the FBI with a list of names of all individuals who used a BoA credit or debit card in the Washington, D.C. region between the dates of Jan. 5-7, 2021.
Further, Hill testified that this Bank of America “data dump” of customer information included a list of individuals who had ever used a BoA credit or debit card to purchase a firearm, regardless of when or where it was purchased.
That would include anyone who has an Alaska Airlines Visa credit card, which is associated with Bank of America and is carried by many Alaskans.
“The Bank of America, with no directive from the FBI, data-mined its customer base. And they data-mined a date range of 5 to 7 January [of 2021] any BOA customer who used a BOA product. And by ‘BOA product,’ I mean a debit card or a credit card. They compiled that list. And then, on top of that list, they put anyone who had purchased a firearm during any date. So it was a huge list …,” Hill told the committee.
Many Alaskans reading this article may fall into the dragnet. In fact, the author may, as well.
Hill’s testimony was confirmed by former senior FBI official Joseph Bonavolonta.
The Committee and Select Subcommittee has since requested documents from Bank of America and six other national financial institutions about the provision of Americans’ private financial information to federal law enforcement without legal process.
In the months since that request, the Committee and Select Subcommittee’s oversight has uncovered ben more of law enforcement’s access to private financial records of U.S. citizens.
The documents show that following the events of Jan. 6, 2021, federal law enforcement officials from the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the FBI initiated multiple discussions with financial institutions.
These meetings included some of the largest financial institutions in the United States, including Barclays, U.S. Bank, Charles Schwab, HSBC, Bank of America, Paypal, KeyBank, Standard Chartered, Western Union, Wells Fargo, Citibank, Santander, JPMorgan Chase, and MUFG.
The meetings were geared toward discussing options for financial institutions to share customer information voluntarily with federal law enforcement outside of normal legal processes.
Committee documents shows how law enforcement and private institutions shared intelligence products in the aftermath of January 6 through a web portal run by the Domestic Security Alliance Council. The DSAC is a public-private partnership led by the FBI’s Office of Private Sector and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis.
The DSAC promotes the “exchange of security and intelligence information” between the federal government and its 650 “member” companies, which represent about two-thirds of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product and 35 million employees.
Following Jan. 6, the FBI shared an intelligence product titled “Domestic Violent Extremists Likely Emboldened in Aftermath of Capitol Breach,” prepared by the FBI, DHS, and the National Counterterrorism Center, with financial institutions to alert them to individuals that may fit the profile of criminal and domestic violent extremists.
This FBI intelligence product, along with other materials shared by federal law enforcement, detail the extent to which federal law enforcement derisively viewed American citizens.
One report shared with financial institutions noted that those Americans who expressed opposition to firearm regulations, open borders, Covid-19 lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and the “deep state” may be potential domestic terrorists.
Federal law enforcement used the report and materials like it to commandeer financial institutions’ databases and ask the financial institutions to conduct sweeping searches of individuals not suspected of committing any crimes.
For example, the committee said, federal law enforcement suggested that banks filter Zelle payments using keywords like “MAGA” and “TRUMP” as part of an ostensible investigation into the events on Jan. 6, 2021, and also warned that “the purchase of books (including religious texts) and subscriptions to other media containing extremist views,” could be evidence of “Homegrown Violent Extremism.”
FinCEN also distributed materials to financial institutions instructing them on how to use Merchant Category Codes (MCCs) to search through transactions to detect potential criminals or “extremists.” These MCCs use keywords to comb through transactions, such as “small arms” purchases or recreational stores such as “Cabela’s,” “Bass Pro Shop,” and “Dick’s Sporting Goods.”
Americans doing nothing other than shopping or exercising their Second Amendment rights were being tracked by financial institutions and federal law enforcement, said the committee report.
Despite the transactions having no criminal nexus, FinCEN seems to have adopted a characterization of these Americans as potential threat actors and subject to surveillance.
Without the FBI whistleblowers’ disclosures to the Committee and Select Subcommittee, these documents would not have come to light, the committee report said.
“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 report stated.
The complete report can be read at this link.
On Wednesday, May 15, the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government will hold a hearing on at 10 a.m. on the use of lawfare tactics to weaponize the rule of law. Witnesses include:
- Robert Costello, Partner, Davidoff Hutcher & Citron
- James Trusty, Former Federal Prosecutor
- Gene Hamilton, Executive Director, America First Legal
The hearing can be watched at this link:
