by Eric Lendrum
The mega-bank Bank of America has been giving private information about its customers to the federal government following the mostly peaceful protests at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, as reported by Fox News.
The report comes from Tucker Carlson’s show Tucker Carlson Tonight, which obtained exclusive documents showing that Bank of America went through the private data and transaction history of all of its more than 60 million customers. This was due to the bank coming to an agreement with the federal government to use this information to identify so-called “extremists” who were present for the Capitol protests.
As Carlson put it, this essentially meant that Bank of America, the second-largest bank in the country, was acting less like a bank and more like an intelligence agency, going through the information of even customers who were not present in Washington D.C. that day. The bank ultimately narrowed down its search criteria to any customers that made “debit card or credit card purchases in Washington D.C. between 1/5 and 1/6,” those who purchased “hotel/Airbnb RSVPs in DC, Virginia, and Maryland after 1/6,” “any purchase of weapons between 1/7 and their upcoming suspected stay in D.C.,” and any “airline related purchases since 1/6.”
When asked about the investigation, Bank of America released a statement saying that they “don’t comment on our communications with law enforcement. All banks have responsibilities under federal law to cooperate with law enforcement inquiries in full compliance with the law.”
Nevertheless, the revelation constitutes a significant breach of privacy, as well as an unprecedented level of cooperation between a private corporate entity and the federal government, since, according to Carlson, the bank is not legally obligated to turn over private information on its customers to the government.
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Eric Lendrum reports for American Greatness.
Photo “Bank of America” by Bank of America.
BoA is a lousy operation to start with. My deceased father-in-law banked with them in Nashville because it was one of a very limited number of banks where he had lived in Arizona before moving here for his last few years. They treated him like dirt. It took my wife 4 tries to get his account closed following his death. She was treated with contempt each time she went to the branch.
And do not forget. BoA led the charge to provide mortgages to illegals.
Providing specifically requested data about specific customers who the government has probable cause to believe they committed a crime is not the same thing as turning over masses of data to allow the government to go on a “fishing trip” looking for anyone they might deem to be suspect. The banks do, indeed, have an obligation to cooperate in the former case, but not in the latter, which probably violates the bank’s agreements with their customers and is clearly an invasion of privacy. The rule of thumb for any bank ought to be: “We’ll be happy to provide the information you’ve requested…just as soon as you produce a warrant.”
This seems to me like a really good reason never to do business with Bank of America (which I wouldn’t do anyway, because they treat their customers like something you’d scrape off your shoe if you stepped in it).
Duh. The closer anyone gets to overthrowing the Federal Reserve System, the more the crack down. PSSST. There is nothing in the vault but paper. I closed my CHASE account earlier this week. TN needs to start a TN State Silver Music Bank, having our musicians request Silver Dollars for admission to TN Shows.