In a press release by the House Judiciary Committee yesterday, Committee Chairman Representative Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) addresses new documents obtained by the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government that show how the federal government, after January 6, 2021, targeted for financial surveillance people who made purchases of religious texts, sporting goods such as firearms, and political merchandise.
Jordan posted on X the letter addressed to Noah Bishoff, who is the anti-money laundering (AML) officer at Plaid Inc, and stated, “What was also flagged? If you bought a religious text, like a BIBLE, or shopped at Bass Pro Shop.”
In the letter, Jordan states the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) flagged generic terms such as “TRUMP”, “MAGA”, and transactions that indicated “extremism” such as “the purchase of books (including religious texts) and subscriptions to other media containing extremist views.” Jordan alleges FinCEN violated the First Amendment and urged financial institutions to search through private transactions on the basis of protected political and religious expression.
The Judiciary Committee also sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, where Jordan states the FBI without legal process requested a list of Bank of America (BoA) customers who made transactions in Washington, D.C., between January 5 and January 7, 2021. The FBI stated it was “interested in all financial relationships” of the BoA customers listed who had made “ANY historical purchase” of a firearm, or who had purchased a hotel, Airbnb, or airline travel within that time frame.
