Federal agencies reportedly gave banks automated tools to flag as possible domestic terrorists any Americans who buy Bibles or support the enforcement of protecting the border, testimony revealed before a House committee.
“Federal agencies are funding tools for the financial sector similar to those social media is using to target misinformation and hate speech,” explained Jeremy Tedesco, senior counsel at the nonprofit First Amendment law firm Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). “Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg.”
On March 6, attorneys general from 16 states called on Wells Fargo to stop “using debanking as a political tool to extend the policies of the Biden Administration throughout the economy.”
“Wells Fargo has institutionalized discrimination by imposing race and sex-based quotas into credit agreements with customers like BlackRock,” says a letter from the attorneys general.
Tedesco also claimed the FBI gave financial institutions a document that reportedly said “indicators of domestic violent extremism” banks should monitor in customer purchases include objections to “firearm legislation” and “the easing of immigration restrictions.”
Prior hearings found Treasury Department officials told banks that buying things like a Bible, supporting former President Donald Trump, or shopping at sporting goods stores flags law-abiding Americans as potential domestic terrorists.
“Major banks have attended CISA Cybersecurity Advisory Committee meetings concerning misinformation and disinformation. For example, JPMorgan Chase attended one such meeting on March 21, 2022, 86 CISA considers ‘financial services’ to be ‘critical infrastructure’ that is put at risk by ‘the spread of false and misleading information,’” Tedesco continued.
According to Tedesco’s testimony, last year Bank of America canceled the account of Indigenous Advance Ministries, a Tennessee-based charity that cares for orphans, prisoners, and sex trafficking victims in Uganda.
“Indigenous Advance Ministries … had to tell its nine Ugandan employees to wait an extra week to receive a paycheck they depend on for survival,” Tedesco said. “Like many of their countrymen, these Ugandans don’t live paycheck to paycheck, but meal to meal. Waiting an extra week for a paycheck in Uganda isn’t just inconvenient, it can be the difference between eating and going hungry.”
The bank explained their decision by saying the charity is “operating in a business type we have chosen not to service at Bank of America.”
