By KAMAL SULTAN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
The Biden Administration has admitted to surveilling the private financial transactions of Americans for words including ‘MAGA’, ‘Trump’ and ‘Kamala’ following the January 6 riots.
Federal investigators in the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) instructed banks to comb through records to look for ‘extremists’.
A letter from the Treasury Department, seen by Fox News, was sent to Senator Tim Scott on Friday which states ‘Exchange events’ began ‘shortly after January 6 under the prior Administration’.
It said it ‘included terms such as “antifa,” “MAGA,” “Trump,” “Biden,” “Kamala,” “Schumer,” and “Pelosi.”‘
The federal government was specifically ‘watching’ Trump supporters and Americans who frequent outdoor stores such as Cabela’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Bass Pro Shops, and also those who purchased religious texts, such as a Bible.
The Treasury Department letter signifies the first time the Biden Administration has confirmed the use of keywords being searched for by investigators over the January 6 riot.
It was signed by Acting Assistant Secretary Corey Tellez and was in response to a letter sent by Scott, who is on the Senate Banking Committee, to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen demanding answers.
Scott claimed the surveillance ‘represents a flagrant violation of Americans’ privacy and the improper targeting of U.S. citizens for exercising their constitutional rights without due process.’
The Republican politician had previously voted for the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020, which allowed the FinCEN Exchange program to share data between law enforcement and financial institutions in a bid to prevent money laundering and terrorism financing.
FinCEN handed materials to banks which suggested they search and filter private finance records using keywords and search terms.
This was to help law enforcement find people of interest ahead of Biden’s January 20 2021 inauguration and after the January 6 riots.
The searches were found during a House Judiciary Committee and Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government investigation.
They discovered documents which showed FinCEN warned financial institutions that an ‘extremism indicator’ could be ‘the purchase of books (including religious texts),” like the Bible, and subscriptions to certain media “containing extremist views’.