The latest move by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) follows letters sent to several banks in June requesting information.
“On June 12, 2023, we requested your voluntary cooperation with our oversight to determine the extent to which financial institutions, such as Citibank, have worked with the FBI to collect Americans’ financial data,” the subpoena issued Thursday reads.
“To date, Citibank has declined to comply with our request voluntarily, and counsel has represented that it will only comply pursuant to a subpoena,” it added.
The Judiciary panel had sent letters to Citibank as well as Bank of America, J.P. Morgan, PNC, Truist, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo “requesting voluntary cooperation to determine the extent to which banks illegally supplied the FBI with Americans’ financial data.”
Citibank was reportedly the only institution that did not cooperate.
On Thursday, Jordan said that lawmakers had obtained documents showing a Citibank representative was included on emails and Zoom discussions organized by the FBI and another agency focused on information-sharing following the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
Jordan’s office also accused Bank of America of sharing “Americans’ private financial data” with the FBI “without legal process.” The allegedly shared data was related to “transactions made in the Washington, D.C., area around Jan. 6, 2021.”
The transaction data could have been used to track the travel routes of suspected rioters or detect the purchase of weapons, according to CNN Business. Jordan also alleged individuals who used a Bank of America product to purchase a firearm around Jan. 6 were moved to the top of the list provided to the FBI.
“Federal law enforcement’s use of back-channel discussions with financial institutions as a method to investigate and obtain private financial data of Americans is alarming,” the Ohio Republican wrote.
The Hill’s Tara Sutter has more here.
