North Carolina Republican Dan Bishop said this week that the Bank of America provided the FBI with private financial information about anyone who was in Washington, D.C., from January 5-7, 2021.
Bishop, a member of the Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, said that the federal government had widely victimized Americans through widespread surveillance, even those not accused of any wrongdoing on January 6.
“Bank of America gave a list to the FBI of anyone who used BofA credit/debit cards in the DC area between Jan 5-7th, 2021 — regardless of whether they participated in the events of Jan. 6th,” he said on Twitter.
During remarks at a hearing of the committee on Thursday, the North Carolina Republican referenced whistleblower testimony that the bank had voluntarily turned over credit card transactions for anyone who was in the D.C. area around January 6.
“There are victims all over the place, all of the people who suffered when the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security got involved in censorship with social media platforms, millions and millions of tweets and narratives being taken down, that is victimization at scale,” Bishop said.
The whistleblower’s claims were highlighted in a report from the weaponization committee that characterized the testimony as “highly alarming.”
“The FBI seemingly worked with a major financial institution to receive, without legal process, financial records about Americans who used credit or debit cards to purchase hotels, flights, or firearms in close proximity to January 6, 2021. This invasion of the privacy of American citizens in this manner is decidedly concerning,” the report said.
Other Republicans backed up Bishop, calling for more protections for the liberty of Americans, with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) referring to the Bank of America’s “astonishing conduct.”
“Financial privacy is a cornerstone of individual liberty,” West Virginia State Treasurer Riley Moore said. “Big banks and big government colluding to violate the privacy of American citizens without a warrant is dangerous and unacceptable.”
In response to the allegations, Bank of America said that it, “follows all applicable laws and regulatory requirements to receive, evaluate, process, safeguard and narrowly respond to law enforcement requests.”
On Friday, Bishop said that the FBI was “rotten to the core” in response to another report that the FBI had wrongly accessed data for hundreds of thousands of Americans.
“Rotten to the core. It’s far past time to cut their budget and institute significant reforms. The weaponization of the federal government must end,” Bishop said.
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