Two Republican members of Congress announced that they would extend a House investigation on collusion between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and large banks.
Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan and Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie have sent letters to Citigroup JPMorgan PNC Financial Services, Truist U.S. Bankcorp, Wells Fargo, and Wells Fargo in order to find out if personal information was transferred to the FBI. They wrote, “Following events at the Capitol, in January 2021 Bank of America provided to the FBI, voluntarily and with no legal process, a list of individuals who transacted in Washington D.C. between January 5, 2020 and January 7Â ”
The bureau asked the banks whether they had made arrangements similar to those with the bank.
In the letters, retired FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst George Hill testified that Bank of America had “data-mined”, its customer database to create an FBI list. “On top of that list [they] placed anyone who bought a gun at any time.” ”
Jordan, and Massie, both wrote that Hill’s testimony was “alarming”, especially because it was presented in a data dump, rather than being directed at specific individuals. The letters state that the FBI obtained the financial data of individuals who were not involved in the riot, due to the data dump.
The congressmen said that “Congress wants to protect Americans’ privacy against being collected without due process by federal law enforcement agencies”. The bank executives were asked to provide all documents and communications between their institution, the FBI and themselves.
