House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has subpoenaed Citibank amid a wider probe into whether multiple banks shared data with the U.S. government to assist in the investigation and prosecution of individuals involved in the Jan. 6, 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol.
The Republican lawmaker subpoenaed Citibank on Aug. 17 for documents and communications after it allegedly failed to voluntarily cooperate with the Judiciary Committee’s and Weaponization Select Subcommittee’s investigation into allegations that major banks shared private financial data with the FBI.
In June, the committee wrote to multiple financial institutions, including Citibank, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase & Company, PNC Financial Services, Truist, U.S. Bankcorp, and Wells Fargo requesting they voluntarily cooperate with the probe determining the extent to which they “illegally supplied the FBI with Americans’ financial data.”
The letters followed whistleblower testimony from retired FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst George Hill that Bank of America (BoA), “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.”
According to Mr. Jordan, Citibank was the only bank that declined to cooperate with the probe.
Whistleblower Testimony ‘Concerning’
“To date, Citibank has declined to comply with our request voluntarily, and counsel has represented that it will only comply pursuant to a subpoena,” the Republican lawmaker wrote in the Aug. 17 subpoena letter (pdf) to the CEO of Citibank North America, Sunil Garg.Mr. Jordan went on to note the whistleblower testimony regarding BoA, adding that the committee has also learned that “individuals who had previously purchased a firearm with a BoA product were elevated to the top of that list, regardless of the time or place of the firearm purchase.”
“Given this concerning testimony, the Committee has written to other major financial institutions, including Citibank, to determine whether those entities were involved in similar conduct,” Mr. Jordan wrote.
The GOP lawmaker also noted that other documents recently obtained by the committee and select subcommittee have “reinforced our concerns” regarding the possible sharing of private financial information with the FBI.
“These documents show that the FBI supplied BoA with specific search query terms, indicating that the FBI was ‘interested in all financial relationships’ of BoA customers transacting in Washington D.C. and those customers who had made ’ANY historical purchase' of a firearm, or that had purchased a hotel, Airbnb, or airline travel within a given date range,” he wrote.
He also claimed that the Judiciary Committee and Weaponization Subcommittee obtained documents indicating Citibank “may have shared customer information with federal law enforcement despite the customers having no individualized nexus to criminal conduct.”
‘Weaponization of the Federal Government’s Power’
The committee and select subcommittee have also recently obtained documents indicating that a Citibank representative “was included on emails and Zoom discussions organized by the FBI and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) focused on ‘identifying the best approach to information sharing, both strategic and operational,’ in the wake of the events of January 6,” Mr. Jordan further noted.“These documents suggest that the executive branch was brainstorming informal methods—outside of legal process—for obtaining private customer information from financial institutions,” the Ohio congressman concluded.
Mr. Jordan is asking Citibank to hand over all existing and future records and materials relating to the allegations of alleged illegal sharing of private financial information.
The Epoch Times has contacted Citibank for further comment.
Mr. Jordan asked the two agencies to hand over the internal communications and documents relating to moderation, removal, or suppression of content on social media platforms by Sept. 18.
“Numerous documents that have been made publicly available reflect the weaponization of the federal government’s power to censor speech online directly and by proxy,” the letters read. “It is necessary for Congress to gauge the extent to which DOJ officials have coerced, pressured, worked with, or relied upon social media and other tech companies to censor speech. The scope of the Committee’s investigation includes understanding the extent and nature of DOJ’s involvement in this censorship.”
The DOJ and FBI did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.
