“Federal law enforcement had used sweeping search terms like ‘MAGA’ and ‘TRUMP’ to target Americans and even treated purchases of religious texts or firearms as indicators of extremism.”
Banks have allowed the purchases of everyday Americans to be spied on as the Biden-Harris administration has worked with them to do so. The administration was able to do this without warrants that would usually be required for such actions, according to a new congressional report.
In a 47-page report released by the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government this week, the committee found that the "government is spying on your bank account" by abusing laws on the books such as the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA).
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View on XThe report stated, "Documents show that federal law enforcement increasingly works hand-in-glove with financial institutions, obtaining virtually unchecked access to private financial data and testing out new methods and new technology to continue the financial surveillance of American citizens."
This data can include your location of purchases, description of purchases, as well as date of when the transaction takes place, allowing the federal government to spy on what you are buying, the committee found. The FBI has reportedly compiled this data into a searchable portal internally where citizens the government has concerns about can be analyzed.
During the year 2023, the database was accessed by over 14,000 federal employees, and over 3 million searches were conducted. All without a warrant. The committee stated that the Biden-Harris administration and the FBI have taken advantage of the BSA in order to do the searches and make the database after January 6, 2021. In addition, the committee claimed that "law enforcement has been manipulating the Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) system to gain access to financial information without warrants or probable cause."
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View on XThe report stated that the BSA requires banks to file what is called a "suspicious activity report" (SAR). A SAR is filed by a financial institution whenever "it identifies ‘a suspicious transaction relevant to a possible violation of law or regulation’” the committee stated, citing the Treasury Department.
"The FBI has manipulated the Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) filing process to treat financial institutions as de facto arms of law enforcement, issuing 'requests,' without legal process, that amount to demands for information related to certain persons or activities it considers 'suspicious,'" the report stated. This came after the January 6, 2021 protest and riot, when the feds "coordinated with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to encourage financial institutions across the country to scour their data and file SARs on hundreds of Americans, if not more, without any clear criminal nexus.”
The report added that "federal law enforcement had used sweeping search terms like 'MAGA' and 'TRUMP' to target Americans and even treated purchases of religious texts or firearms as indicators of extremism'" in order to file some of the reports.
After gathering more data, the committee said that the FBI has taken advantage of this foothold and that financial institutions such as Bank of America and Wells Fargo have been encouraged by the government to hand over private financial information of many American citizens.
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