The House Judiciary Committee accused the Treasury Department of urging banks to search legal purchases for signs of extremism, including political and religious terms.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen dodged questions about this, stating that they intend to investigate and respond to the accusations.
“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 areas with no apparent purpose,’ or ‘the purchase of books (including religious texts) and subscriptions to other media containing extremist views,’” Jordan wrote.
“In other words, FinCEN used large financial institutions to comb through the private transactions of their customers for suspicious charges on the basis of protected political and religious expression.”
Republican representatives expressed concern about government surveillance of private financial transactions and pressed Yellen for answers, to which she promised a thorough investigation.
“Increasingly, we are hearing the federal government is suggesting banks search private financial transactions using highly partisan political terms or check to see if customers made purchases that could be associated with legal sales of firearms or even religious texts,” Rep. Ann Wagner said.
“Has Treasury — including FinCEN or federal banking agencies like the Fed, FDIC, OCC — instructed financial institutions to search Americans’ legal transactions in attempts to surveil their purchases?”
“Well, we received the letter from you, I believe, on this topic, and we intend to investigate and to respond,” Yellen said.
“Have you instructed banks and financial institutions to provide this information?” Wagner asked.
“Well, FinCEN, our job is to work with financial institutions to make sure —” Yellen said.
“Are they instructing financial institutions to search Americans’ legal transactions in attempts to surveil their purchases?” Wagner asked.
“I promise a thorough look into everything,” Yellen said.
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