Don’t tell me we don’t live in a banana republic!
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.
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.