Exclusive: Federal investigators have suggested that banks start searching for private financial transactions using terms other than “Trump” and “MAGA” starting January 6, 2021. Additional terms suggested included “Biden,” “Kamala” and “Antifa,” sources familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital.
Fox News Digital reported Wednesday that the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's (FinCEN) Office of Stakeholder Integration and Engagement in Strategic Operations has released documents outlining “typologies” of “various parties” to financial institutions. It was reported that the following information was provided: It provides banks with “suggested search terms and merchant category codes to identify transactions on behalf of federal law enforcement.”
'Alarming' surveillance: Fed asks banks to search for private transactions for terms like 'MAGA' and 'Trump'
Sources told Fox News Digital on Thursday that search terms such as “MAGA” and “Trump” are generated by banks to identify suspicious transactions when reviewing customer transaction information. It is said that it was used. It is unclear which bank generated the search terms.
FinCEN then shared these terms with other banks and helped them comply with their own suspicious activity reports, the sources said.
But beyond the terms identified by the House Judiciary Committee, the unnamed bank generated other terms that FinCEN shared with other banks, officials told FOX News Digital.
Additional search terms include “white power,” “Camp Auschwitz,” “Antifa,” “Proud B,” “Storm the,” “Capitol,” “Groyper Army,” officials said. “Sleepers”, “Boogaloo”, “Civil War”, “The Last Sons”, “Kill”, “Shoot”, “Guns”, “Death”, “Murder”, “Biden”, “Kamala”, “Pelosi” , “Schumer”, “Pence”. ”
Sources said the distribution of search terms including “MAGA” and “Trump” began in the final weeks of the Trump administration, after January 6, 2021.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc, via Getty Images)
The original terms “MAGA” and “Trump” were revealed in a letter from House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) to a former FinCEN board member. Fox News Digital first reported the letter.
The commission's investigation found that FinCEN distributed KeyBank-generated slides to other banks to detect customers whose transactions “could involve potential mass shooters or dangerous international terrorists.” It was also revealed that they explained how to use Merchant Category Codes (MCC). Domestic Terrorists/Domestic Violent Extremists (“Lone Wolf”). ”
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Jordan said the slide provides financial institutions with specific MCC codes such as “3484: Small Arms,” ”5091: Sports and Recreational Goods and Supplies,” and the keywords “Cabela's,” “Dick's Sporting Goods,” ” Bass Pro” to view transactions. “Shop” etc.
KeyBank declined to comment.
Dick's Sporting Goods, Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's did not respond to Fox News Digital's requests for comment.
A person familiar with documents held by the House Judiciary Committee told Fox News Digital that Jan. 6, 2021, was the “trigger” for the questioning and search, but none of the documents obtained by the committee were specific. He said he did not specify the period or restrictions. When a bank searches for customer transactions by criteria. The federal government continued to use the information in investigations after January 6, the person said.
It is unclear whether this term is still used by banks to search for personal transactions.
“Even though these transactions have no clear criminal nexus and are, in fact, related to Americans exercising their Second Amendment rights, FinCEN is appears to be characterizing it as a potential threat actor,” Jordan wrote. “This type of pervasive financial surveillance of the personal transactions of American citizens, conducted in coordination with and at the request of federal law enforcement, is alarming and violates FinCEN’s fundamental freedoms. It raises serious questions about respect.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee at the Hart Senate Office Building at the Capitol on December 5, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday obtained by FOX News Digital, Jordan wrote a transcript of an interview with a senior private sector partner for the FBI's Strategic Partner Engagement Section Outreach. requested.
Jordan said Bank of America “voluntarily compiled a list of individuals who made transactions in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area using Bank of America credit or debit cards between January and January.” , the committee said it received testimony showing that it was provided to the FBI “without any legal process.” .5 and January 7, 2021.
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Fox News Digital first reported on this part of the committee's investigation last year. Bank of America said in November that the bank “followed all applicable laws” in its communications with the government. The bank noted that the Treasury Department on January 15, 2021 “shared information regarding possible criminal activity that could disrupt the upcoming Inauguration Ceremony.”
Bank of America said Wednesday that “we have cooperated with the committee as it evaluates whether the laws we have followed should be changed.”
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But in Wednesday's letter, Jordan said that when the list later came to the FBI's attention, former Domestic Terrorism Division chief Steve Jensen “pulled” Bank of America information from the FBI's systems. He said he had taken action. “There was no allegation of federal criminal activity in the lead.”
Jordan said the committee obtained documents showing that FBI agents “contacted Bank of America and provided Bank of America with specific search query terms; It shows that the US is “interested in all financial matters'' of BoA's customers and past customers doing business in Washington, DC.'' “Past purchases” of firearms, or people who purchased hotels, Airbnb, or airline tickets within a certain date range. ”
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Jordan is asking former FinCEN and FBI officials to appear before his committee and the Weaponization Subcommittee and transcribe interviews to assist the committee in its oversight investigation.
