Banks used ‘MAGA,’ ‘Trump,' 'Kamala,' 'Pence,' and more to search private transactions, the source said
Feds asked banks to search private transactions for terms like ‘MAGA,’ ‘Trump’
Fox News’ Brooke Singman on reports that private transactions were searched by banks in an attempt to target Trump supporters
EXCLUSIVE: Federal investigators asked banks in January 2021 to search private financial transactions using terms beyond "Trump" and "MAGA," including "Biden," "Kamala," "Antifa," and more, a source familiar told Fox News Digital.
Fox News Digital on Wednesday reported that 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."
A source familiar told Fox News Digital on Thursday that the search terms, like "MAGA" and "Trump" were generated by a bank and used to help them identify suspicious transactions when reviewing customer transactional information. The source said those terms were shared by FinCEN with other banks to help those banks to comply with their own suspicious activity reports.
But beyond the terms identified by the House Judiciary Committee, the unnamed bank generated other terms, which FinCEN shared with other banks, the source told Fox News Digital.
The source said the additional search terms included: "White Power," "Camp Auschwitz," "Antifa," "Proud B," "Storm the," "Capitol," "Goyper Army," "Threepers," "boogaloo," "civil war," "last sons," "kill," "shoot," "gun," "death," "murder," "Biden," "Kamala," "Pelosi," "Schumer," and "Pence."
The source said the distribution of the search terms, including "MAGA" and "Trump" was done during the Trump administration.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Brooke Singman is a political correspondent and reporter for Fox News Digital, Fox News Channel and FOX Business.
