According to the House Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, which falls under the jurisdiction of the House Judiciary Committee, federal law enforcement agencies partnered with a number of financial institutions to flag transactions with the terms "MAGA," "Trump" and more. They also monitored transactions at stores like Cabela's and Bass Pro Shop. Other purchases linked to religious texts, like Christian bibles, were flagged under the guise of "preventing extremism."
"The Committee and Select Subcommittee have obtained documents indicating that following January 6, 2021, FinCEN distributed materials to financial institutions that, among other things, outline the 'typologies' of various persons of interest and provide financial institutions with suggested search terms and Merchant Category Codes (MCCs) for identifying transactions on behalf of federal law enforcement," the Committee released Wednesday.
"These materials included a document recommending the use of generic terms like 'TRUMP' and 'MAGA' to 'search Zelle payment messages' as well as a 'prior FinCEN analysis' of 'Lone Actor/Homegrown Violent Extremism Indicators.' According to this analysis, FinCEN warned financial institutions of 'extremism' indicators that include 'transportation charges, such as bus tickets, rental cars, or plane tickets, for travel to areas with no apparent purpose,' or 'the purchase of books (including religious texts) and subscriptions to other media containing extremist views.' In other words, FinCEN urged large financial institutions to comb through the private transactions of their customers for suspicious charges on the basis of protected political and religious expression," the Committee found.
We now know the federal government flagged terms like “MAGA” and “TRUMP,” to financial institutions if Americans completed transactions using those terms.
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) January 17, 2024
What was also flagged? If you bought a religious text, like a BIBLE, or shopped at Bass Pro Shop. pic.twitter.com/jjRaVNItWz
The transactions were flagged after January 6, 2021.
The alarming details have prompted House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan to demand transcribed interviews with FBI Director Christopher Wray and former Director of the Office of Stakeholder Integration and Engagement in the Strategic Operations Division of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) Noah Bishoff.
In recent years the FBI has improperly conducted hundreds-of-thousands of searches and surveillance on American citizens without warrants.
Watch: “Breaking tonight: New allegations that the FBI overstepped its authority in conducting its investigations against American citizens. And not just a few times: we’re talking in the hundreds of thousands of times” — @BretBaier pic.twitter.com/GOguzuInF8
— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) May 19, 2023