Exposed: 13 Major Banks Colluded With Government to Spy on MAGA Supporters

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Republicans in Congress are intensifying their scrutiny of major banks, probing allegations of collusion with federal agencies in the surveillance of Americans following the January 6 protests. According to a report in the Daily Mail, more than ten banks are under investigation for their role in a witch hunt against Trump supporters, targeting “extremism” indicators [via Daily Mail]:

Bank of America, Chase, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo, Citi Bank and Truist were already being targeted in the probe looking to expose how the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the FBI worked together.

Now, DailyMail.com can first reveal that seven other financial firms are also under investigation for ties to an FBI and FinCEN plot to spy on Americans’ private banking transactions without first obtaining a warrant.

Charles Schwab, HSBC, MUFG, PayPal, Santander, Standard Chartered and Western Union have all been asked to turn over documents and communications with FinCEN and the FBI to the committee, according to letters exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com.

The investigation, led by the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, is shedding light on the cooperation between financial institutions and government agencies, particularly the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the FBI. Initial reports from Fox News revealed that federal investigators requested banks to monitor customer transactions using terms like “MAGA” and “Trump,” with purchases of Bibles flagged as signs of extremism.

While major banks such as Bank of America, Chase, and Wells Fargo were already under scrutiny, DailyMail.com has disclosed that seven additional financial firms, including Charles Schwab, HSBC, and PayPal, are now part of the investigation. Letters obtained by the publication indicate that these banks have been asked to provide documents and communications related to their collaboration with FinCEN and the FBI.

The inquiry has sparked concerns among lawmakers and privacy advocates about the erosion of civil liberties and the misuse of financial data for surveillance purposes. House Republicans, led by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), have raised alarms over the weaponization of financial information, warning against the casting of routine transactions and political expressions as indicators of extremism.

This collusion reveals a troubling trend of overreach by government agencies and corporate entities, with serious implications for individual privacy and constitutional rights.

Biden Efforts to Pocket Pennsylvania in Jeopardy After Write-in Votes Pass 60,000 Mark in Primary

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President Joe Biden may have an uphill battle ahead of him in Pennsylvania after the write-in candidate option on the Democratic primary ballot notched over 60,000 votes.

While the list of all the write-in entries has yet to be revealed, an organized protest effort against Biden was launched in the Keystone State that urged voters upset with his handling of the Israel–Hamas war to vote against him.

Uncommitted PA, the group that spearheaded the campaign, set a goal of 40,000 “uncommitted” votes during the primary. The Associated Press had tallied 60,223 total write-in votes with 99% of the vote counted as of Thursday afternoon.

“We are celebrating that massive victory of over 60,000 votes, which have nearly doubled the total of write-ins in 2020, and even more so than the write-ins in 2016,” Rah Noonan, an organizer with Uncommitted PA, told the Washington Examiner.

The coalition mobilized the write-in campaign in roughly one month, launching on March 25 with only volunteer members, a sign of the intense passion girding the movement. (Read more from “Biden Efforts to Pocket Pennsylvania in Jeopardy After Write-in Votes Pass 60,000 Mark in Primary” HERE)

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USDA Bird Flu Research in China Sparks Congressional Concern

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Research on highly pathogenic strains of bird flu conducted by the Department of Agriculture in affiliation with Chinese Communist Party scientific researchers is drawing renewed scrutiny from representatives in Congress following the growing outbreak of bird flu in dairy cows this month.

A bipartisan group of representatives in the House began probing the USDA this month regarding two collaborative research projects with the Chinese Academy of Sciences conducting potentially dangerous research on several strains of avian influenza that are genetically similar to the H5N1 strain currently circulating in the United States.

This heightened scrutiny comes as outside observers of the bird flu outbreak note that the situation is eerily similar to the secrecy of January and February 2020 before the official beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA) joined a group of 20 legislators in sending a letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilkas on April 12, saying they were “disturbed” that U.S. taxpayer funds were being allocated for research that “could potentially generate dangerous new lab-created virus strains that threaten our national security and public health.”

Griffith told the Washington Examiner this week that he is highly concerned about the USDA’s research, considering the history of biosecurity failures in U.S.-funded virus research in China. (Read more from “USDA Bird Flu Research in China Sparks Congressional Concern” HERE)

‘Pure Evil’: Guatemalan Illegal Alien Allegedly Lethally Stabbed His Girlfriend and Her Daughter, Police Say

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Florida police mounted a massive manhunt in search for an illegal alien accused of stabbing his girlfriend and her daughter to death in a shocking and brutal crime.

Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister described an “extremely gruesome scene” in a very emotional media briefing on Wednesday evening.

Chronister said police swarmed a mobile home at about 5:30 p.m. after a roommate found the bodies of a woman and her daughter on Wednesday in the city of Dover. He said they found the woman in a pool of blood behind the mobile home and the girl, who was later found to be 4 years old, dead inside the home.

A neighbor said they had heard a woman scream earlier that day but didn’t make anything of it because it was a regular occurrence.

“I am taken back by the level of pure evil that has transpired when our suspect brutally murdered an innocent woman and a young child,” he added. (Read more from “‘Pure Evil’: Guatemalan Illegal Alien Allegedly Lethally Stabbed His Girlfriend and Her Daughter, Police Say” HERE)

A Principal Was Removed, Faced Threats for Making Racist Comments. There’s Just One, Major Problem.

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A black ex-employee allegedly used artificial intelligence to frame the white principal of a Baltimore-area high school as a racist and an antisemite, resulting in relentless threats, harassment, and the principal temporarily being removed from the school.

Dazhon “DJ” Darien is accused of impersonating Pikesville High School principal Eric Eiswert using AI-generated audio to mimic his voice and make racist, antisemitic statements on a simulated recording that was, then, widely circulated across social media.

“You know, I seriously don’t understand why I have to constantly put up with these dumbasses here every day,” a male voice, purportedly Eiswert’s, says in the 45-second tape. The speaker goes on to gripe about “ungrateful black kids who can’t test their way out of a paper bag” and how hard it is to make sure that these students meet their grade-level academic expectations.

“And if I have to get one more complaint from one more Jew in this community, I’m going to join the other side,” the voice adds.

At one point, the speaker mentions Darien by his nickname, DJ, as an example of staff who “should never have been hired.” (Read more from “A Principal Was Removed, Faced Threats for Making Racist Comments. There’s Just One, Major Problem.” HERE)

How Many More Times Will Joe Biden Mention This at the Podium This Year?

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. . .This afternoon, the president delivered remarks about the CHIPS and Science Act at the Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science and Technology in Syracuse, New York. And somehow, he decided to thread his son’s death into the mix:

You know, before I start, I want to take a moment to honor two officers who have already been mentioned — two fallen heroes who were killed in the line of duty this month: Lieutenant Michael Hoosock and — County Sheriff Department — and Syracuse Police Officer Michael Jensen.

We pray for their loved ones, whose hearts have been broken. You know, every time a police officer puts on that shield every morning, their husband or wife, whatever it is, their child worries about will they get that phone call — will they get that phone call.

I got one of those phone calls in a different circumstance — find out you’ve lost part of your soul, lost part of your heart.

Ninety-nine percent of that was fine, but where does Beau Biden fit into all this? He could have simply honored the late Lt. Hoosock and Officer Jensen, who were shot and killed earlier this month; that would have been the right thing to do. Instead, Biden grief-peddled again, exploited his son’s death again, and misfired on the empathy play again. Beau died of brain cancer. (Read more from “How Many More Times Will Joe Biden Mention This at the Podium This Year?” HERE)

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Trump Defense Attorney Fires Crippling Shots at Alvin Bragg’s Case Just Minutes Into Cross-Examination

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Former President Donald Trump’s lawyer sought to cast doubt on arguments at the core of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case just minutes into cross-examining the prosecution’s first witness.

Defense attorney Emil Bove questioned former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker about the tabloid’s business practices, pointing out that purchasing stories to keep them from getting out, as he did for Trump, is not unusual for what has been described as the publication’s “checkbook journalism.” The prosecution had previously questioned Pecker on the details of purchasing former playboy model Karen McDougal’s story of an alleged affair with Trump, one of three instances they argue demonstrate an illegal “conspiracy” to influence the 2016 election by Pecker, former Trump attorney Michael Cohen and Trump.

Bove sought to flip the script and demonstrate the McDougal deal was just “standard” procedure. He highlighted multiple instances where Pecker’s magazine suppressed damaging stories for other individuals in the public eye, including for politicians like Rahm Emanuel, current U.S. ambassador to Japan and former Democratic mayor of Chicago, and former Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

He also emphasized that Pecker’s relationship with Trump pre-dated the 2016 election. Pecker had been providing Trump a heads up on potentially negative publicity for over a decade, Bove noted, and Pecker confirmed the first time he did so was in 1998.

Pecker agreed that he ran articles about Trump because it was “good for business.” They had a “mutually beneficial” business relationship: Trump would also tip Pecker off with information about “The Apprentice,” including rating and access to participants. (Read more from “Trump Defense Attorney Fires Crippling Shots at Alvin Bragg’s Case Just Minutes Into Cross-Examination” HERE)

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Republicans Sound Alarm on Efforts to Shield Ukraine Funding From American Voters

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As President Joe Biden signed legislation Wednesday to send billions of dollars more in aid to Ukraine, officials from Brussels to Washington are working to hamstring former President Donald Trump from taking a different route should he win back the White House.

With Congress granting Biden additional “drawdown” authority to send weapons to Kyiv, and NATO allies in Europe seeking to take the power to send aid away from the White House, multiple Senate Republicans, strategists and former Trump officials told the Daily Caller efforts to “Trump-proof” foreign aid are misguided and futile.

“There are things that they’re setting in motion here that are going to make it very difficult for Trump to, if he’s elected president, to undo this, to extricate us, from these arrangements,” Utah Sen. Mike Lee said. “I mean, look there are a thousand things you can do with government contracting that can make it either easier or harder for a subsequent administration to take a different approach.”

Lee is among the lawmakers and officials who opposed the aid package that will send $26.4 billion of funding to Israel, $8.1 billion of funding to Taiwan and $61 billion of more aid to Ukraine. Several of the opponents noted that, in their view, Ukraine is unlikely to prevail in the long-term against Russia and a settlement must be negotiated sooner rather than later.

“The fact is that the strategy isn’t working. There is no strategy,” Fred Fleitz, the vice chair of America First Policy Institute’s Center for American Security said. “And Trump understands that. And it’s just not fair for these Democrats to say, well, we’re going to Trump-proof NATO. We’re going to Trump proof aid for Ukraine.” (Read more from “Republicans Sound Alarm on Efforts to Shield Ukraine Funding From American Voters” HERE)

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Chinese Company Appears to Ignore Threat of U.S. Ban, Says It ‘Has No Plans’ to Sell TikTok: Report

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According to Toutaio, a news and information content platform that is a core product of the Chinese company ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, ByteDance has no plans to sell TikTok.

Last weekend, Congress passed a measure that gave ByteDance nine months to sell TikTok or it will be banned in the United States. If a sale is in progress during those nine months, an additional three months would be added. On Wednesday, President Biden signed the measure into law.

“Foreign media reports that ByteDance is exploring the sale of TikTok are untrue. ByteDance has no plans to sell TikTok,” Toutaio stated on Thursday.

TikTok had responded to Biden signing the bill with a statement on X:

This unconstitutional law is a TikTok ban, and we will challenge it in court. We believe the facts and the law are clearly on our side, and we will ultimately prevail. The fact is, we have invested billions of dollars to keep U.S. data safe and our platform free from outside influence and manipulation. This ban would devastate seven million businesses and silence 170 million Americans.

(Read more from “Chinese Company Appears to Ignore Threat of U.S. Ban, Says It ‘Has No Plans’ to Sell TikTok: Report” HERE)

Supreme Court To Hear Arguments On Whether Trump Has Immunity From Federal Prosecution

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The Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on Thursday about whether former President Donald Trump can invoke presidential immunity to shield himself from federal prosecution.

The court agreed to take the case in February after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit panel ruled against an immunity claim Trump had asserted to shield himself from special counsel Jack Smith’s 2020 election case. Trump has contended that presidential immunity is necessary to ensure that presidents are able to do their jobs without fear of political retaliation.

“If a President does not have Immunity, the Opposing Party, during his/her term in Office, can extort and blackmail the President by saying that, ‘if you don’t give us everything we want, we will Indict you for things you did while in Office,’ even if everything done was totally Legal and Appropriate. That would be the end of the Presidency, and our Country, as we know it, and is just one of the many Traps there would be for a President without Presidential Immunity,” Trump posted on Truth Social last Friday.

“Obama, Bush, and soon, Crooked Joe Biden, would all be in BIG TROUBLE. If a President doesn’t have IMMUNITY, he/she will be nothing more than a ‘Ceremonial’ President, rarely having the courage to do what has to be done for our Country,” the former president added. “This is not what the Founders had in mind! Protect Presidential Immunity.”

The Supreme Court will hear arguments on “whether and if so to what extent does a former president enjoy presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office.” (Read more from “Supreme Court To Hear Arguments On Whether Trump Has Immunity From Federal Prosecution” HERE)

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