In a damning new report released by the House Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, Republicans claim the federal government has transformed the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) into a tool for spying on Americans.
The Gateway Pundit first reported on this investigation on Monday.
Here’s a Good Place for Elon Musk’s DOGE Dept. to Start Downsizing Government: More than 14,000 Federal Employees Accessed Americans’ Private Financial Data Over 3 Million Times to Target Conservatives and Trump Supporters
The report alleges that federal law enforcement agencies under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, including the FBI, have turned financial institutions into de facto arms of the government, bypassing legal safeguards to obtain sensitive financial data.
Using Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) and Currency Transaction Reports (CTRs), federal agencies have accessed millions of financial records without probable cause or warrants.
The GOP-led investigation found that millions of these reports are filed annually, with nearly 4.6 million SARs submitted in 2023 alone.
What’s more alarming is the scope of access. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) allows over 25,000 government officials to access sensitive financial data without a warrant.
Documents uncovered by the committee show that, in 2023, federal agencies ran over 3.3 million searches in FinCEN’s database—equivalent to 9,000 warrantless searches per day.
In addition to the FinCEN Query program, approximately 27,000 federal officials can access BSA data through the Agency Integrated Access (AIA) program, which permits certain federal agencies to download the data directly onto their systems.
In fact, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the FBI facilitated multiple backchannel discussions with financial institutions to gather Americans’ private financial information.
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) December 6, 2024
The investigation began after whistleblower testimony revealed that Bank of America voluntarily provided the FBI with a list of customers who made purchases in Washington, D.C., around January 6, 2021.
According to the report, federal law enforcement used broad search terms like “MAGA” and “TRUMP” and even flagged purchases of religious texts and firearms as potential markers of extremism.
The federal government used sweeping terms like “MAGA” and “TRUMP” to flag Americans, even treating the purchase of Bibles or firearms as signs of “extremism.”
: https://t.co/BFIJgcywTv
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) December 6, 2024
This resulted in SARs being filed against over 200 individuals by the Bank of America without any clear criminal nexus, raising serious concerns about Fourth Amendment violations.
In 2021, The Gateway Pundit reported that Bank of America searched through customers’ data and transaction records and provided these data to the FBI following the Capitol riot.
The country’s second-largest bank gave data and information to the feds at the request of the US government, without the knowledge or consent of the customers.
Bank of America scanned through customer records to flag the following:
- Were they in DC between January 5 and January 6
- Purchased a hotel stay or AirBnB in DC, Virginia, or Maryland after January 6
- Airline-related purchases since January 6
- Any purchase of weapons between January 7 and their upcoming suspected stay in the DC area around Inauguration Day
In 2023, Chairman Jim Jordan of the House Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government issued a subpoena to Bank of America (BoA).
BoA’s response to the committee claimed that their actions were part of a legal process initiated by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
However, the committee contends that the FBI, not the Treasury, initiated the contact without a legal framework.
Other banks, fintech companies, and cryptocurrency platforms were similarly compelled to file SARs under threat of heavy penalties for noncompliance.
House Republicans are calling for immediate legislative reforms to rein in the federal government’s unchecked surveillance powers under the BSA.
Among the proposed measures is Senator Mike Lee’s “Saving Privacy Act,” which aims to strengthen the requirement for warrants in accessing private financial record.
According to the document reviewed by The Gateway Pundit:
“Congress could also consider reforming the SAR filing process. Under the current BSA framework, financial institutions are required to act as confidential informants on their customers, reporting them to the federal government without any recourse or notice available to the customer.
Congress could amend the BSA to require that banks, after a certain period of time, give notice to the customer that a SAR was filed, provide a justification, and offer an opportunity for the customer to respond to allegations they engaged in “suspicious activity.”
Other reforms propose establishing “a private right of action for Americans and financial institutions harmed by illicit government activity.”
Finally, Congress could restore Fourth Amendment protections to Americans’ financial records. In order to end warrantless surveillance, Congress could require a warrant before law enforcement can gain access to Americans’ private financial information.
Senator Mike Lee’s Saving Privacy Act proposes bolstering the warrant requirement under the Right to Financial Privacy Act of 1978.
Americans should not have to choose between having a bank account and worrying that the federal government may have warrantless access to their personal financial decisions and other revealing details about their pattern of life, interests, faith, politics, and more.”
Read the full interim staff report here.
Read the full appendix here.
