(Ken Silva, Headline USA) House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, sent a letter Tuesday to GoFundMe CEO Tim Cadogan, seeking information on whether his company participated in the surveillance of Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Hill protestors.
Jordan’s letter comes amidst a House Judiciary investigation into corporations and government agencies from tracking purchases made by law-abiding Jan. 6 protestors. Jordan’s Weaponization Subcommittee showed last month that the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN—created to combat issues such as international money laundering—urged banks to search their databases for terms such as “MAGA” and “Trump” to find potential domestic extremists.
Jordan told Cadogan that he recently received records showing that FinCEN emailed GoFundMe and other financial institutions in the wake of Jan. 6. FinCEN alerted GoFundMe and the other financial institutions to customers’ use of Eventbrite, noting that “people have been observed using this site to post an event and sell tickets including bus tickets to the demonstrations,” Jordan said.
“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 told Cadogan.
“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.”
Among other information, Jordan asked for all of GoFundMe’s communications from FinCEN or any other federal agency, that may be used to identify, query, monitor, flag, target, or remove certain kinds of fundraisers or transactions. He also asked for all documents and communications between or among GoFundMe and the FBI’s Office of the Private Sector or Strategic Partner Engagement Section.
Jordan wants those documents by March 18.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
