House Republicans are expanding their probe into the chilling surveillance of the financial transactions for supporters of former President Donald J. Trump, adding two major crowdfunding websites to the list.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) sent letters to GoFundMe and Eventbrite requesting their cooperation with the investigation currently underway by the “weaponization” subcommittee into the alleged snooping on Americans who are being targeted for their political views.
The letters, which were first reported by the Daily Mail, request that “the sites turn over their previous communications with federal officials, including those at the Treasury, who oversaw the transaction surveillance.”
“Republicans investigate GoFundMe and Eventbrite for Surveillance” https://t.co/FkeStIUd1o
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) March 5, 2024
“Congress has an important interest in protecting Americans’ privacy and First Amendment activity. Documents obtained by the Committee and Select Subcommittee raise the prospect that Eventbrite and GoFundMe may have been in communication with FinCEN or other federal law-enforcement agencies about activity on Eventbrite and GoFundMe’s platform,” the committee said in a press release.
Lawmakers say that the federal government “urged large financial institutions to comb through their customers’ private transactions and report charges on the basis of protected political and religious expression.”
In January, the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government released a stunning report alleging that the regime had flagged terms for financial institutions such as “MAGA” and “TRUMP” if used during financial transactions.
According to the committee, “Individuals who shopped at stores like Cabela’s or Dick’s Sporting Goods, or purchased religious texts like a Bible, may also have had their transactions flagged.”
#NEWS: @Jim_Jordan Seeks Documents from Eventbrite and GoFundMe about Federal Government’s Financial Surveillance pic.twitter.com/YIZ1BtD4WQ
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) March 5, 2024
In an excerpt from one of the letters posted to the committee’s website, Jordan wrote: “[T]he Committee and Select Subcommittee have obtained documents showing that on January 18, 2021, FinCEN emailed financial institutions a list of ‘crowdfunding sites’ that included Eventbrite, GoFundMe, and Anedot, among others, and explained how financial institutions could use a ‘transaction reference’ to identify customers making certain transactions on crowdfunding sites. For example, in the email, FinCEN alerted financial institutions to customers’ use of Eventbrite, noting that ‘people have been observed using this site to post an event and sell tickets including bus tickets to the demonstrations.'”
“Despite these transactions having no apparent nexus to criminal activity—and, in fact, relate to Americans exercising their First Amendment rights—FinCEN seems to have adopted a characterization of these Americans as potential threat actors. This kind of pervasive financial surveillance, carried out in coordination with federal law enforcement, without legal process, into Americans’ private transactions is alarming and raises serious concerns about the federal government’s potential abuses of Americans’ fundamental civil liberties,” the letter reads.
The financial surveillance of Trump’s supporters is another example of how the nation’s anti-terrorist measures have been turned inward by the Biden administration and Democrats inside of the sprawling federal bureaucracy to be used against their political adversaries, a major scandal that would bring serious reforms in a country with a media that isn’t thoroughly corrupt.
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