Prior to the Biden regime, the U.S. government had 17 bonafide intelligence agencies spread across the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. military and the Intelligence Community.
But now, it looks like we can add an 18th agency: Bank of America.
In recent days, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson reported exclusively that his show had discovered that the country’s largest banking institution was cooperating with federal authorities who are attempting to identify people who stormed the U.S. Capitol Building Jan. 6.
While that was most definitely a criminal act, should the 60 million Americans who use BofA expect their financial institution to behave as just another government spy agency? Carlson doesn’t think so (neither do we) and in fact, the act of providing data to the feds like purchases via bank cards may be illegal and unconstitutional (that privacy thing, you know).
To launch his segment, Carlson noted that the Biden regime’s new “war on terror” is really a war against “violent extremism and the people who embrace it,” though of course, no one is fully explaining what is ‘extremism’ and who is committing it.
Tucker Carlson reveals that Bank of America was flagging the purchasing history of its customers and sending it to the federal government in order to find out if they were involved in the Capitol riot.
The feds later interrogated a customer who was cleared of wrongdoing. pic.twitter.com/QtwNv8EaWQ
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) February 5, 2021
“Have you noticed? None of these newly energized and highly empowered extremist hunters have told us exactly what an extremist is,” Carlson said. “So we are left to guess. We are left to look around nervously to see if we can spot one. Hoping against hope the whole time they are not talking about us. Are they?”
“And if they are, what exactly are they doing? How are they hunting these extremists they keep telling us about but will not describe?” Carlson continued. “We now know part of the answer to that question. This show has obtained exclusive evidence that Bank of America, the second largest bank in the country with more than 60 million customers, is actively but secretly engaged in the hunt for extremists in cooperation with the government.”
He then alleged that BofA “is, without the knowledge or the consent of its customers sharing private information with federal law enforcement agencies.”
“Bank of America effectively is acting as an intelligence agency. But they are not telling you about it,” he added.
The host went on to note that BofA is turning over debit card and credit card purchases to federal investigators as a means of identifying certain persons who fit a profile. But lots of people were in the nation’s capital that day, and while many did attend former President Trump’s rally, they were nowhere near the Capitol riot.
Is there info being scooped up and supplied to the feds anyway? If so, under what authority? Has a warrant been issued?
The profile of requested purchase data includes hotel stays, travel and the “purchase of weapons or at a weapons-related merchant,” which Carlson called “remarkably broad.”
“That is a very, very wide net, an absurdly wide net,” he explained. “Bank of America identified a total of 211 customers who met these, quote, thresholds of interest. And it was at that point, the show has learned, Bank of America turned over the results of its internal scan to federal authorities – apparently without notifying the customers who were being spied upon.”
He added that at least one unsuspecting person was interviewed by the feds, though that individual hadn’t done anything wrong.
“Imagine if you were that person,” he added. “The FBI hauls you in for questioning in a terror investigation … Now they are sweating you because your bank, which you trust with your most private information, information of everything you buy, has ratted you out to the feds without telling you, without your knowledge.”
“Because Bank of America did that, you are being treated like a member of Al Qaeda,” he continued. “What country is this? It doesn’t matter how much you despise Donald Trump, or how much you believe that hatred of Trump justifies the suspending this country’s ancient civil liberties.”
“Bank of America did have a choice,” Carlson insisted. “The bank could have resisted turning over information on its innocent customers to federal investigators. But Bank of America did not do that. Nor is it clear, if we’re going to be precise about it, that what Bank of America did is even legal. It turns out it’s not simple. It’s a gray area.’
Does that matter? Probably not – this is King Biden’s brave new world and if there is a problem with the law he’ll just ‘fix it’ with an executive order.
Well, okay, his handlers will.