List of ‘hate groups’ sent to banks by Biden administration included top conservative organizations

The Biden administration circulated a list of “hate groups” to U.S. banks as part of its post-Jan. 6 financial surveillance, a tally compiled by left-of-center groups that featured a host of mainstream conservative organizations.

They included the Alliance Defending Freedom, Family Research Council, Liberty Counsel, Pacific Justice Institute, and Federation for American Immigration Reform, according to an investigation by the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.

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“FinCEN circulated the ISD report to some of the largest financial institutions in the world, including the very financial institutions that are likely responsible for providing financial services to many of the listed ‘hate groups,’ without regard for the chilling effect it would have on protected speech and its potential to be weaponized against the groups by financial institutions,” said the subcommittee.

In addition, the list “draws a false equivalency between certain conservative civil society groups and the American Nazi Party and the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, suggesting FinCEN views them equally,” said the subcommittee report released Wednesday.

The panel’s report, “Financial Surveillance in the United States: How Federal Law Enforcement Commandeered Financial Institutions to Spy on Americans,” focused on the FBI’s mining of bank records to head off any potential threats to the Jan. 20, 2021, inauguration of President Biden following the Capitol riot.

Federal law enforcement asked financial institutions to “conduct sweeping searches of individuals not suspected of committing any crimes,” the report said, by filtering Zelle payments with keywords such as “MAGA” and “TRUMP,” and flagging purchases at firearms stores like Cabela’s, Bass Pro Shop, and Dick’s Sporting Goods.

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In addition, the agency distributed a hyperlink to the Anti-Defamation League’s “Hate on Display” database, a list of racist symbols that includes the Celtic Cross. The ADL acknowledged that the popular cross design is a “very common symbol and primarily used by non-extremists.”

The findings raised alarm about the federal government’s role in promoting the de-banking of conservative organizations by discrediting them with financial institutions, an issue already drawing concern on the right.

The Treasury Department confirmed last month that it supported law enforcement efforts to identify those involved with the Jan. 6 riot by suggesting keywords for financial surveillance, which also included “Biden,” “Kamala” and “Antifa.”

“We understand that FinCen convened these Exchange events starting under the prior Administration and continuing until approximately mid-February 2021,” said the Feb. 9 letter to Sen. Tim Scott, South Carolina Republican, posted on Fox News.

Jeremy Tedesco, Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel, said in testimony before the subcommittee at a hearing Thursday that “viewpoint-based de-banking is on the rise,” citing several examples.

In April, Bank of America closed the account of Indigenous Advance Ministries of Tennessee after eight years, telling the group working with Ugandan orphans and at-risk children that it “no longer aligns with the bank’s risk tolerance,” he said.

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Mr. Tedesco accused the Biden administration of colluding with the financial industry “to censor Americans with mainstream conservative and religious views.”

“This Orwellian surveillance of American citizens has no place in a free society. Neither does the federal government’s weaponization of the financial industry against peaceable religious and conservative groups,” he said. “We won’t allow the federal government to treat us like domestic terrorists, nor accept its bullying and Big Brother tactics.”

This isn’t the first time the Biden administration has been accused of relying on left-wing groups to target conservatives.

The FBI was pilloried for a January 2023 memo from its Richmond, Virginia, office that named “radical-traditionalist Catholics” as a potential domestic terrorism threat based on sources that included the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center. The FBI retracted the memo shortly after it was leaked.