Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy continued his veering leftward on Thursday, pushing back against his colleagues’ fury over federal investigators probing bank and retail-related data connected to Jan. 6.

Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH) and the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government obtained documents detailing the searching of bank records for terms such as “MAGA” or “Trump,” as well as others including “Small Arms,” “Cabela’s,” and “Dick’s Sporting Goods.”

“According to this analysis, FinCEN warned financial institutions of ‘extremism’ indicators that include ‘transportation charges, such as bus tickets, rental cars, or plane tickets, for travel areas with no apparent purpose,’ or ‘the purchase of books (including religious texts) and subscriptions to other media containing extremist views,’” Jordan noted in a letter sent to the former director of FinCEN, Noah Bishoff.

“In other words, FinCEN used large financial institutions to comb through the private transactions of their customers for suspicious charges on the basis of protected political and religious expression,” he asserted in the letter that was reported on by Fox News.

(Video Credit: Fox News)

“House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said the documents obtained by the committee indicate that after Jan. 6, 2021, the Treasury Department’s Office of Stakeholder Integration and Engagement in the Strategic Operations of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, distributed materials to financial institutions that outlined ‘typologies’ of ‘various persons of interest’ and provided the banks with ‘suggested search terms and Merchant Category Codes for identifying transactions on behalf of federal law enforcement,'” Fox News wrote.

“The materials included a document recommending the use of generic terms like ‘Trump’ and ‘MAGA’ to ‘search Zelle payment messages’ as well as a ‘prior FinCEN analysis’ of ‘Lone Actor/Homegrown Violent Extremism Indicators,'” the media outlet continued.

Political correspondent Brooke Singman reported that there didn’t seem to be a stated end date for the data searches either.

At that point, Doocy pointedly noted that “this all happened during the Trump administration.” Singman conceded the point but turned back to Jordan’s claims that the surveillance was ongoing after President Biden’s inauguration.

Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt remarked, “Basically, we don’t have any privacy. This is such an invasion!”

@foxandfriends @SteveDoocy @kilmeade @ainsleyearhardt @LawrenceBJones3
The feds and Wray violate the constitution, have banks invade the citizens privacy, search for purchases at Bass Pro and bibles….
Closet democrat Steve Doocy tries to blame Trump and defends feds. pic.twitter.com/ypKqUnNUMi

— USS Sampson (@vmwilliamson1) January 18, 2024

Doocy chimed in on why he believed the feds were looking into bank and retail records following Jan. 6.

“You know what Bass Pro, Cabela’s, and Dick’s Sporting Goods all sell? Bear spray,” he contended. “There were a number of police officers, federal officers who were attacked, allegedly and some people have been convicted since then because they used bear spray… You attack a federal officer, there’s gonna be a federal investigation obviously. I don’t know. I’m just suggesting, they all sell bear spray.”

The back and forth over the subject continued as the co-hosts discussed the legality of the investigation and the subsequent invasion of privacy.

Doocy asked, “Ultimately, it comes down to did what this FinCEN do, was it allowed by law?”

Y’all see THIS?

So now the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) is having banks search for Trump, MAGA and people who shop at Cabela’s or Bass Pro to identify “Extremists”

Just another installment of “This could NEVER happen in America”… pic.twitter.com/iDgnX1om1n

— SaltyGoat (@SaltyGoat17) January 18, 2024

“Because if you’ve got your bank and other banks as well giving this stuff up, and I don’t know. Jim Jordan has put a lot of stuff out there, but not a lot of details. We don’t know if it was legal. And, if it was legal, apparently they can do it. When you sign into a new account, the terms of service, you know. You are going to abide by federal law. Maybe this is one of them. We don’t know,” Doocy said seemingly justifying the action.

He would go on to double down on the alleged fact that the surveillance took place during the Trump administration as if that somehow explained why federal authorities were pawing through Americans’ personal data. The primary thrust of the investigation appears to have been Jan. 6 which indicates the Biden administration and Democrats were involved in it.

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