US Congress investigating banks for Jan. 6-related spying on Americans
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A House Republican committee looks into banks that worked with federal agencies for electronic surveillance targeting American citizens.
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Trump supporters storm the US Capitol following a rally with former President Trump on January 6, 2021 (AFP)
House Republicans have written letters to 13 banks and financial institutions, accusing them of collusion with the FBI and the Treasury Department to surveil Americans without a warrant regarding the January 6, 2021 Capitol Hill riot, the Daily Mail revealed.
On January 6, a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, aiming to suspend the counting of electoral college votes affirming President Joe Biden’s win.
The attack resulted in four deaths, and an officer, Brian D. Sicknick, was sprayed with a powerful chemical irritant, suffered a stroke, and died the following day.
According to the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, led by Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), financial institutions collaborated with the FBI and the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to target individuals involved in the event.
Read more: Capitol riots; one of the largest investigations ever
“The Committee and Select Subcommittee remain concerned about how and to what extent federal law enforcement and financial institutions continue to spy on Americans by weaponizing backdoor information sharing and casting sprawling classes of transactions, purchase behavior, and protected political or religious expression as potentially ‘suspicious’ or indicative of ‘extremism’,” the newspaper reported, quoting a letter from Jordan, which it obtained exclusively on Thursday.
The congressman cited evidence indicating that the FBI and FinCEN requested banks to monitor transactions involving the purchase of Bibles or online searches containing terms like "Trump" or "MAGA," which represents the campaign slogan of the 45th president, "Make America Great Again."
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Civil liberties and federal agencies
Bank of America, Chase, US Bank, Wells Fargo, Citi Bank, and Truist Financial are already being investigated by Congress. But on Thursday, they reached out to Charles Schwab, HSBC, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, PayPal, Santander, Standard Chartered, and Western Union as well.
According to the Daily Mail, Bank of America provided information on 211 individuals to the FBI and FinCEN by January 17, 2021. However, its Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) was submitted after federal agencies instructed banks to monitor purchases associated with "extremist" activity. Out of the 211 individuals, four were identified for further investigation and were visited by FBI agents. None of them faced any charges.
“This kind of warrantless financial surveillance raises serious concerns about the federal government’s respect for Americans’ privacy and fundamental civil liberties,” Jordan wrote in a separate letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, also obtained by the outlet.
'Not to spy on Americans'
The Biden Administration has admitted to monitoring the private financial transactions of Americans, targeting keywords like "MAGA", "Trump", and "Kamala" in the aftermath of the January 6 riots.
Federal investigators, operating within the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), directed banks to scrutinize records of potential "extremists".
According to a letter from the Treasury Department to Senator Tim Scott, the "surveillance initiative", labeled as "Exchange events", commenced shortly after January 6, 2021. Initiated under the previous Administration, the program encompassed the monitoring of users who use terms like "Antifa", "MAGA", "Trump", "Biden", "Kamala", "Schumer", and "Pelosi".
The Treasury's materials instructed financial institutions to consider subscriptions to news outlets with "extremist" views as another indicator for scrutiny.
"FinCEN was created to stop money laundering and not to spy on Americans," Scott said in February during a Senate Banking Committee hearing. "It was not created for political motivations."
