One of the nation’s biggest banks has been served with a subpoena by investigators looking into how financial companies helped the federal government spy on Americans without a warrant in its effort to catch those involved in the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) has subpoenaed Bank of America for “documents and communications related to the Judiciary Committee’s and Weaponization Select Subcommittee’s investigation into major banks sharing Americans’ private financial data with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) without legal process for transactions made in the Washington, D.C., area around Jan. 6, 2021.”
Bank of America was one of several banks that turned over to the Justice Department all financial transaction information on all Americans who were in the Washington, D.C. area between January 5 and January 7, 2021.
The federal government did not have a warrant for the information, and had no probable cause to seek such a warrant.
The United States Constitution strictly forbids the federal government from engaging in such searches or seizures of information. It appears some in the FBI were aware that securing the information was improper.
“When that information was brought to the attention of Steven Jensen, the FBI’s then-Section Chief of the Domestic Terrorism Operations Section, he acted to ‘pull’ the BoA information from FBI systems because ‘the leads lacked allegations of federal criminal conduct,’’ the Committee reports.
The search was extremely broad, and roped in possibly millions of law-abiding Americans engaged in legal and peaceful behavior.
“Documents obtained by the Committee and Select Subcommittee show that the FBI also provided BoA with specific search query terms, indicating that the FBI was “interested in all financial relationships” of BoA customers transacting in Washington D.C. and that had made “ANY historical purchase” of a firearm, or those who had purchased a hotel, Airbnb, or airline travel within a given date range,” the Committee notes.
Bank of America appears to have tried to pin the blame on the federal government.
“In its June 22, 2023, letter to the Committee, BoA asserted that its actions ‘were within a legal process initiated by the United States Department of the Treasury.’ Contrary to these assertions, however, documents on file with the Committee and Select Subcommittee indicate that the FBI—not the U.S. Department of the Treasury—initiated contact directly to BoA, and without legal process,” the Committee notes.
It appears the entire J6 spy operation ran afoul of federal law.
As a result, it is unclear what “legal” process permits the FBI or BoA to share the sensitive customer information of potentially thousands of BoA customers and implicate them in a federal law enforcement investigation without any clear criminal nexus. To that end, BoA’s letter claimed that certain federal laws—namely, the Anti-Money Laundering Act and the Bank Secrecy Act—permit such an arrangement. However, these laws and corresponding regulations primarily contemplate information-sharing with the U.S. Department of Treasury and its components, not external correspondence with the FBI.
The Committee pledged to keep investigating and stop any improper spying on Americans.
“If such a lawful authority exists, as BoA asserts, for BoA to freely share private
financial information without any legal process or specific nexus to criminality, Congress has a responsibility to consider reforms that adequately protect Americans’ information. It should not be the case that federal law enforcement has carte blanche access to Americans’ financial information by deeming a transaction or class of transactions as “suspicious” or otherwise. For that reason, to inform such legislation, it is critical that the Committee understand the full extent of the information-sharing between BoA and the FBI, including review of BoA’s “filing” that it emailed to the FBI,” the Committee writes.
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