If you’re a Christian or someone who supports the Second Amendment or former President Donald Trump, you’re a potential enemy of the state under Joe Biden’s dumpster-fire presidency.
That’s the chilling implication of documents unearthed by the House Judiciary Committee showing the Treasury Department urged banks to comb through the private transactions of their customers and flag them on behalf of federal law enforcement.
In a statement on Wednesday outlining the findings, the Judiciary Committee’s select subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government said the documents revealed that “the federal government flagged terms like ‘MAGA’ and ‘TRUMP’ for financial institutions if Americans used those phrases when completing transactions.”
“Individuals who shopped at stores like Cabela’s or Dick’s Sporting Goods, or purchased religious texts like a bible, may also have had their transactions flagged,” it said.
The subcommittee said the Biden administration’s weaponization of the federal government to trample on Americans’ constitutionally protected political and religious expression was “alarming.”
“This kind of pervasive financial surveillance, carried out in coordination with and at the request of federal law enforcement, into Americans’ private transactions is alarming and raises serious concerns about the FBI’s respect for fundamental civil liberties,” the committee wrote.
Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, slammed the Biden administration in a Wednesday post on X.
“We now know the federal government flagged terms like “MAGA” and “TRUMP,” to financial institutions if Americans completed transactions using those terms,” he wrote.
“What was also flagged? If you bought a religious text, like a BIBLE, or shopped at Bass Pro Shop.”
Attached was a letter requesting the testimony of Noah Bishoff, the former director of an office in the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
The documents obtained by the Judiciary Committee included slides that FinCEN provided to banks explaining how they should use keywords to identify and flag customers as potential terrorists.
“For example, the slides instruct financial institutions to query for transactions using certain MCC [Merchant Category Codes] codes such as ‘3484: Small Arms,’ ‘5091: Sporting and Recreational Goods and Supplies,’ and the keywords ‘Cabela’s,’ and ‘Dick’s Sporting Goods,’ among several others,” the committee wrote.
A list of gun shops was included among the keywords the federal government had urged banks to flag and report.
“Despite these transactions having no apparent criminal nexus — and, in fact, relate to Americans exercising their Second Amendment rights — FinCEN seems to have adopted a characterization of these Americans as potential threat actors,” the subcommittee noted.
FinCEN also warned financial institutions that “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)” should be flagged as fitting the profile of a potential terrorist.
This is absurd since the traits the Biden administration identified as befitting a terrorist apply to countless Americans.
Every day, many people buy plane tickets or rent cars “for travel to areas with no apparent purpose.” This is called taking a vacation.
Many more buy “religious texts” or shop at sporting goods stores.
Weaponizing taxpayer-funded federal agencies to surveil the private information of U.S. citizens without legal process is an unacceptable violation of Americans’ civil liberties.
As a reminder, the House Judiciary Committee unveiled a shocking report last month showing that the FBI had targeted Catholics and tried to infiltrate churches under the guise of deterring terrorism.
In Biden’s America, anyone who reads the Bible or owns a legal firearm for self-defense purposes is a potential enemy of the state.
No wonder so many things are going sideways.
via westernjournal