The Biden administration has confirmed that terms like “MAGA,” “Trump” and “Kamala” were included in the push by federal investigators for banks to surveil private financial transactions following the Jan. 6, 2021 protests at the U.S. Capitol, a letter obtained by Fox News Digital reveals.
The letter, sent Friday from the Treasury Department to Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, notes that “Exchange events” convened by its Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, “began shortly after January 6 under the prior Administration,” and “included terms such as ‘antifa,’ ‘MAGA,’ ‘Trump,’ ‘Biden,’ ‘Kamala,’ ‘Schumer,’ and ‘Pelosi.’”
This marks the first time the Biden administration has gone on the record to confirm some of the keywords included in the Jan. 6-related push by investigators.
The letter, signed by Acting Assistant Secretary Corey Tellez, comes in response to a letter sent by Scott to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen demanding answers from the Department and FinCEN after revelations of the surveillance using “politically charged search terms” to flag customer profiles to federal law enforcement surfaced.
In his letter, Scott wrote that 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.”
Scott previously voted for the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020, which codified the FinCEN Exchange program to facilitate the sharing of data between law enforcement and financial institutions in an effort to combat crimes like money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
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