Chairmen Jordan and Massie Launch Investigation into Bank of America Voluntarily Sharing Customers’ Private Financial Data with the FBI

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust Chairman Thomas Massie (R-KY) sent a letter to Bank of America (BoA) CEO Brian Moynihan demanding information and communications between BoA, the FBI, and the Department of Justice related to the events of January 6, 2021.
 
The House Judiciary Committee and Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government released a report highlighting whistleblower testimony that disclosed BoA provided the FBI—voluntarily and without any legal process—with a list of individuals who had made transactions in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area with a BoA credit or debit card between January 5 and January 7, 2021. The report also suggests that individuals who had previously purchased a firearm with a BoA product were elevated to the top of the list regardless of when or where the purchase was made. 
 
Excerpts of the letter:

"The Committee on the Judiciary and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government are conducting oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and its receipt of information about American citizens from private entities. An FBI whistleblower has disclosed that shortly after the events at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, Bank of America (BoA) provided the FBI—voluntarily and without any legal process—with a list of individuals who had made transactions in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area with a BoA credit or debit card between January 5 and January 7, 2021. The Committee and Select Subcommittee have also heard testimony that individuals who had previously purchased a firearm with a BoA product were elevated to the top of the list regardless of when or where the purchase was made. We require your cooperation in investigating these facts.

"In a transcribed interview, retired FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst George Hill testified that:

'The Bank of America, with no directive from the FBI, data-mined its customer base. And they data-mined a date range of 5 to 7 January [of 2021] any BOA customer who used a BOA product. And by 'BOA product,' I mean a debit card or a credit card. They compiled that list. And then, on top of that list, they put anyone who had purchased a firearm during any date. So it was a huge list . . . .'

"This testimony is alarming. According to veteran FBI employees, BoA provided, without any legal process, private financial information of Americans to the most powerful law-enforcement entity in the country. This information appears to have had no individualized nexus to particularized criminal conduct, but was rather a data dump of BoA customers’ transactions over a three-day period. This information undoubtedly included private details about BoA customers who had nothing at all to do with the events of January 6. Even worse, BoA specifically provided information about Americans who exercised their Second Amendment right to purchase a firearm.

"Congress has an important interest in ensuring that Americans’ private information is protected from collection by federal law enforcement agencies without proper due process. The Committee and Select Subcommittee must understand how and to what extent financial institutions, such as BoA, worked with the FBI to collect Americans’ data. As we continue our oversight, we ask that you please provide the following documents and information:

1. All documents and communications from January 1, 2021, to the present between or among BoA officials, employees, or consultants referring or relating to the provision of financial records to the FBI concerning the use of a BoA product between January 5, 2021, and January 7, 2021, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.

2. All documents and communications from January 1, 2021, to the present between or among BoA officials, employees, or consultants and the FBI referring or relating to the provision of financial records to the FBI concerning the use of a BoA product between January 5, 2021, and January 7, 2021, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.

3. All documents and communications from January 1, 2021, to the present between or among BoA officials, employees, or consultants and the Department of Justice referring or relating to the provision of financial records to the FBI concerning the use of a BoA product between January 5, 2021, and January 7, 2021, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.

4. All documents and communications related to any internal database of firearms purchases by BoA customers."
 

Read the full letter to Bank of America’s CEO Brian Moynihan here.
 

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