(OPINION) A U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary subcommittee is seeking to question a former official in the U.S. Treasury’s financial crimes enforcement office over revelations the agency urged financial institutions to flag customer transactions linked to phrases like “MAGA” and “Trump” as well as purchases of religious texts.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chair of the House Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, sent a letter Wednesday to Noah Bishoff, the former director of an office in the Treasury’s Strategic Operations Division of Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
Requesting a transcribed interview with Bishoff, Jordan stated that the subcommittee obtained documents showing that following the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, FinCEN “distributed materials to financial institutions that, among other things, outline the ‘typologies’ of various persons of interest.”
He alleges the agency also “provided financial institutions with suggested search terms and Merchant Category Codes (MCCs) for identifying transactions on behalf of federal law enforcement.”
“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,'” the letter reads.
“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.'”
Jordan claimed that the documents show that “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 findings from the subcommittee suggest federal law enforcement agencies also sought data on transactions at popular sporting goods stores like Bass Pro Shop, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Cabela’s.
“We now know the federal government flagged terms like ‘MAGA’ and ‘TRUMP’ to financial institutions if Americans completed transactions using those terms,” Jordan tweeted. “What was also flagged? If you bought a religious text, like a BIBLE, or shopped at Bass Pro Shop.”
One of the sample slides distributed by FinCEN, “prepared by a financial institution,” gave instructions on how to query for transactions like those associated with “small arms,” “sporting and recreational goods and supplies,” and keywords like “Dick’s Sporting Goods,” “Cabela’s” and others, according to the documents.
