Yellen dodges on whether Treasury Department moved to surveil Americans' legal purchases
Treasury Department allegedly flagged terms such as 'MAGA' and 'Trump,' as well as religious texts such as the Bible
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday testified that she would investigate whether the department moved to surveil legal purchases by Americans.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sidestepped questions about whether her department ordered surveillance of consumer purchases and transactions.
Yellen was asked Tuesday during a hearing whether the Treasury Department instructed financial institutions to monitor legal purchases for signs of "extremism," as claimed in a House Judiciary Committee letter last month.
"Has Treasury — including FinCEN or federal banking agencies like the Fed, FDIC, OCC — instructed financial institutions to search Americans' legal transactions in attempts to surveil their purchases?" Republican Missouri Rep. Ann Wagner asked Yellen.
"Well, we received the letter from you, I believe, on this topic, and we intend to investigate and to respond," Yellen responded.
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Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testifies during a House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington, D.C. (Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
"Have you instructed banks and financial institutions to provide this information?"
"Well, FinCEN, our job is to work with financial institutions to make sure —" Yellen began to reply before being interrupted by Wagner.
"Are they instructing financial institutions to search Americans' legal transactions in attempts to surveil their purchases?" Wagner repeated.
"I promise a thorough look into everything," Yellen said.
"This is really concerning, and I would hope you get to it just as quickly as possible, Madam Secretary," Wagner concluded.
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The U.S. Treasury Department in Washington, D.C. (Getty Images)
Federal investigators asked banks to search and filter customer transactions by using terms like "MAGA" and "Trump" as part of an investigation into Jan. 6,, warning that purchases of "religious texts" could indicate "extremism," the House Judiciary Committee claimed last month.
The committee also obtained documents that indicate officials suggested that banks query transactions with keywords like "Dick's Sporting Goods," "Cabela's," "Bass Pro Shops" and more.
The terms and codes were discovered as part of a House Judiciary Committee and Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government investigation.
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U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., center, speaks to reporters in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Alex Wong/Getty Images / Getty Images)
The committees obtained documents indicating that MCC codes were used to query transactions like: "3484: Small Arms," "5091: Sporting and Recreational Goods and Supplies" and the keywords "Cabela’s," "Dick’s Sporting Goods" and "Bass Pro Shops," among others.
The House Judiciary Committee also obtained documents revealing that FinCEN warned financial institutions that an "extremism indicator" could be "the purchase of books (including religious texts)," like the Bible, and subscriptions to certain media "containing extremist views."
Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.