The House Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government are investigating crowdfunding giants GoFundMe and Eventbrite for allegedly reporting Trump supporters to the federal government.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan wrote a letter last week to GoFundMe CEO Tim Cadogan asking for any communications between company employees and the federal government.
After January 6, 2021, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) began distributing materials to institutions — including GoFundMe — instructing them on how to identify transactions by “Homegrown Violent Extremists/Domestic Terrorists.” The documents contain a list of terms that could be used as “indicators” to track these transactions. Such terms include the words “MAGA,” “Trump,” “America First,” and “Dick’s Sporting Goods.”
FinCEN authorities also told corporations such as Stripe, Zelle, and commercial banks to look for certain Merchant Category Codes (MCCs). Transactions which fell under MCCs such as “3484: Small Arms” and “5091: Sporting and Recreational Goods and Supplies” were to be flagged.
Records obtained by the Judiciary Committee show that FinCEN emailed ticket-selling giant Eventbrite warning that “people have been observed using this site to post an event and sell tickets including bus tickets to the demonstrations.” The email explained in detail how Eventbrite employees could search for transactions by Trump supporters, which they could then pass on to the FBI.
“In other words, the federal government, through FinCEN, urged large financial institutions to comb through their customers’ private transactions and report charges on the basis of protected political and religious expression,” wrote Rep. Jordan.
The federal government also instructed companies to search for “transportation charges, such as bus tickets, rental cars, or plane tickets, for travel to areas with no apparent purpose.” FinCEN also warned about “the purchase of books (including religious texts) and subscriptions to other media containing extremist views.”
“Despite these transactions having no apparent nexus to criminal activity—and, in fact, relate to Americans exercising their First Amendment rights—FinCEN seems to have adopted a characterization of these Americans as potential threat actors,” Jordan added in the letter. “This kind of pervasive financial surveillance, carried out in coordination with federal law enforcement, without legal process, into Americans’ private transactions is alarming and raises serious concerns about the federal government’s potential abuses of Americans’ fundamental civil liberties.”
GoFundMe has until March 18th to provide the committee with all communications it had with the federal government since January 1st, 2021.
