US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is responding to accusations that the US government and more than a dozen financial institutions have teamed up to spy on Americans’ private bank transactions.
The House Judiciary Committee recently published a memo accusing the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of urging banks to surveil their customers’ transactions and flag a list of keywords “without legal process” as part of the investigation into January 6th, 2021 riot on Capitol Hill.
Now, in new testimony to the House Ways and Means Committee, Secretary Yellen has answered a direct question on whether FinCEN emailed search term suggestions like “MAGA” and “Trump” to financial institutions.
“I am now aware that there were communications that took place. In some cases, I believe financial institutions suggested to this group search terms they had used that had been helpful in identifying potential perpetrators of January 6th…
It’s a way of trying to narrow the scope of search for individuals who, based on other information available to the financial institutions, may have been guilty of illegal behavior.”
Secretary Yellen says the search – which allegedly scoured through banking customers’ Zelle payments and messages – happened after the riots, but before President Biden was sworn in on January 20th, 2021.
Ohio Republican and Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan tells the Daily Mail that the searches were conducted without any warrants or pending charges against specific individuals.
“Through our work at the Weaponization Committee, we have uncovered that financial institutions are sending Americans’ information directly to the FBI, without a warrant.
The FBI and FinCEN are using banks to engage in fishing expeditions without any link to criminal conduct. This should worry everyone, no matter the party, and Secretary Yellen should disavow this practice.”
According to the Daily Mail, a total of 13 financial institutions assisted the Treasury with the search, including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo, Citibank, Truist, Charles Schwab, HSBC, MUFG, PayPal, Santander, Standard Chartered and Western Union.
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