House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has sent a subpoena to the Bank of America as his panel continues its investigation into how financial institutions dealt with customer information in relation to the riot at the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021.
Jordan sent a letter to bank CEO Brian Moynihan in which he stated that the institution had failed to voluntarily provide his committee with requested documents regarding questions about what information was shared with the FBI following the riot.
“On May 25, 2023, we requested your voluntary cooperation with our oversight efforts to determine the extent to which financial institutions, such as Bank of America Corporation (BoA), worked with the FBI to collect Americans’ data. In response, the Committee has received 223 pages of documents responsive to our original requests. However, to date, BoA has refused to provide the Committee and Select Subcommittee with the filing it turned over to the FBI,” the letter said, according to the Washington Examiner.
Jordan said he was concerned about information the bank provided to the FBI “voluntarily and without any legal process,” adding if the bank had “lawful authority” to do so, then Congress ought to “consider reforms that adequately protect Americans’ information.”
“Indeed, if such a lawful authority exists, as BoA asserts, for BoA to freely share private financial information without any legal process or specific nexus to criminality, Congress has a responsibility to consider reforms that adequately protect Americans’ information,” the letter said. “It should not be the case that federal law enforcement has carte blanche access to Americans’ financial information by deeming a transaction or class of transactions as ‘suspicious’ or otherwise.”
It added: “For that reason, to inform such legislation, it is critical that the Committee understand the full extent of the information-sharing between BoA and the FBI, including review of BoA’s ‘filing’ that it emailed to the FBI.”
The Examiner noted further:
The investigation into Bank of America by the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, of which Jordan is also chairman, was opened in May, with the panel originally giving the bank a June 8 deadline to provide the requested documents. The inquiry is one of several investigations related to the government’s handling of the Capitol riot by House Republicans.
In late September, meanwhile, Jordan sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray that appears to contain a confirmationthat the bureau did indeed utilize confidential human sources (CHS) to infiltrate crowds ahead of the riot.
In addition, the letter seems to imply that the FBI was using CHSs that were being controlled by field offices outside of Washington, D.C., and that the bureau may not have been able to adequately track them or their activities, Just the News reported.
Just the News added:
Jordan renewed his request for documents to Wray following Tuesday testimony from former Assistant Director-in-Charge of the Washington Field Office (WFO) Steven D’Antuono, who said that the bureau knew that some of its CHSs would be present for the events of Jan. 6 in advance.
“During this interview, D’Antuono testified that the WFO learned after the events of January 6 that there had been confidential sources from other field offices in attendance, as well as informants who participated on their own accord. According to D’Antuono, the FBI was aware in advance of January 6 that some CHSs would be in attendance that day,” the letter to Wray said.
“D’Antuono explained that due to the large number of CHSs present at the Capitol, the WFO asked FBI Headquarters ‘to do a poll or put out something to people saying w[ere] any CHSs involved’ so the FBI could try to ascertain how many CHSs had been in attendance,” Jordan wrote.
