Evidence the federal government is spying on Americans has been released by The House Judiciary Committee and its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. Included is that it considered the purchase of a Bible an identifying factor of domestic terrorism.
The report finds that authorities carried “broad” surveillance of private financial data without any evidence of wrongdoing and more importantly, without a warrant.
The interim report March 6 in conjunction with a press release, reveals what it calls “startling evidence,” that the U.S. looked into the bank accounts and payment apps used by hundreds of millions of Americans. Targeted banks include Barclays, U.S. Bank, Charles Schwab, HSBC, Bank of America, PayPal, and many others. The committee says the federal government went on a “fishing expedition for Americans’ financial data.”
“Tactics included keyword filtering of transactions, targeting terms like MAGA and TRUMP, as well as purchases of books, religious texts, firearms-related items, and recreational stores, like Cabela’s, Bass Pro Shop, and Dick’s Sporting Goods,” the report said.
In testimony, the term “religious texts” was described as representing the act shopping for or purchase of Bibles.
“This surveillance extended beyond criminal suspicion, likely encompassing millions of Americans with conservative viewpoints or Second Amendment interests.”
Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), committee chairman said FinCEN characterized these Americans as potential threats and subject to surveillance despite these transactions having no criminal nexus.
“This portal appears to have shared intelligence products with financial institutions that were used to identify individuals who fit the profile of criminal and domestic violent extremists, often because of their conservative political views or other constitutionally protected activity,” the committee said.
“Federal law enforcement used these reports and other materials they shared with financial institutions to commandeer their databases and conduct sweeping searches of individuals not suspected of committing any crimes, without a warrant, in order to identify individuals making certain suspicious transactions.”
Additional surveillance targets were based on the terms and specific transactions that concerned core political and religious expression.
According to the report, law enforcement designated as potential domestic terrorists those people who expressed opposition to firearm regulations, open borders, COVID-19 lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and the “deep state.”
“Put another way, expressing a belief in the existence of the deep state, support for typical conservative policies with respect to firearms or immigration, or doubt about the conventional narrative may result in an individual being labeled by the FBI as a DVE Actor and Likely to Pose an Increasing Threat.”
The committee labeled it “disturbing” that the country’s most powerful law enforcement agency would consider views widely held by millions of Americans to be signs of domestic terrorism.
–wire services