Fox News host Tucker Carlson tore into Bank of America (BofA) for allegedly searching and releasing private customer data to federal investigators following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
BofA’s target was blatantly ambiguous: anyone it considered to be extremists.
Carlson said his show obtained “exclusively, evidence" that BofA — which has more than 60 million customers — “is actively but secretly engaged in the hunt for extremists in cooperation with the government.” Carlson said during the February 4 edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight that the nation’s second largest bank “is, without the knowledge or the consent of its customers, sharing private information with federal law enforcement agencies.”
In effect, BofA “is acting as an intelligence agency, but they're not telling you about it,” according to Carlson. George Orwell is turning over violently in his grave.
Carlson provided more context, which was more terrifying:
In the days after the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, Bank of America went through its own customers' financial and transaction records — a lot of them. These were the private records of Americans who had committed no crime; people who, as far as we know, had absolutely nothing to do with what happened at the Capitol on January 6. But at the request of federal investigators, Bank of America searched its databases looking for people who fit a specific profile.
“Buying a muffin in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 5? Does that make you a potential domestic extremist? According to Bank of America, yes. Yes, it does,” Carlson stated later in the segment.
Watch the chilling segment below:
The bank’s “specific profile,” as quoted by Carlson, was based on extremely vague parameters: “‘1. Customers confirmed as transacting either through bank account debit card or credit card purchases in Washington, D.C. between 1/5 and 1/6. 2. Purchases made for Hotel/AirBnB RSVPs in DC, VA, and MD after 1/6.'” Carlson continued to outline the broad profile: “‘3. Any purchase of weapons or at a weapons-related merchant between 1/7 and their upcoming suspected stay in D.C. area around Inauguration Day. 4. Airline related purchases since 1/6.'”
BofA reportedly identified “a total of 211 customers who met these ‘thresholds of interest,’" according to Carlson. The bank then “turned over the results of its internal scan to federal authorities, apparently without notifying the customers who were being spied upon.” Investigators reportedly questioned one of the 211 unsuspecting customers who had their financial records passed along for review, according to Carlson. That particular individual was eventually found to have done nothing wrong.
Carlson said that BofA’s actions were causing random Americans to be treated like potential members of the terrorist organization Al Qaeda:
Imagine if you were that person,” Carlson said during his nightly monologue. “The FBI hauls you in for questioning in a terror investigation, not because you've done anything suspicious — you haven’t. You bought plane tickets and visited your country's capital. You thought you could do that. You thought it was your country. Now they're sweating you because your bank, which you trust with your most private information — information of everything you buy — has ratted you out to the feds without telling you, without your knowledge. Because Bank of America did that, you are being treated like a member of Al Qaeda.
It is not “clear — if we’re going to be precise about it — that what Bank of America did is even legal,” Carlson said.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact ABC News (818-460-7477), CBS News (212-975-3247) and NBC News (212- 664-6192) and demand they report on Bank of America’s draconian actions.
