Judicial Watch Appealing To Get Evidence of ‘Unprecedented’ FBI Access to Private Jan. 6 Bank Records

Protesters gather at the police line on the west side of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Special to The Epoch Times)

Judicial Watch Inc. has filed an appeal against the FBI’s refusal to release documents related to customer banking data provided to the bureau as part of “what appears to be an unprecedented abuse of the financial privacy of thousands of Americans.”

As part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice, Judicial Watch had been seeking “all records of communication” between the FBI and financial institutions, that include Bank of America, Chase Manhattan Bank, Discover, American Express, and others.

Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, says the FBI abused the privacy of thousands of Americans through an "unprecedented" sweep through bank records trying to find who was at the U.S. Capitol Jan. 5–6, 2021. (York Du/NTD)

The FBI ignored the FOIA request and later refused to confirm or deny the records exist, Judicial Watch said in a statement. A U.S. District Court sided with the FBI, so Judicial Watch is taking the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Judicial Watch said there is “substantial and compelling evidence” that the FBI sought and received account data from financial institutions, possibly for everyone who used a credit or debit card in Washington, Maryland, and Virginia, on Jan. 5–6, 2021.

In a news release, Judicial Watch cited one example of the FBI obtaining a man’s address through his Bank of America account and recent transactions on the travel website Expedia.

In another case, the FBI said it obtained records from PNC Bank and in court filings “discusses in detail the multiple ways that it used the financial data.”

The FBI records sweep was believed to be exceptionally broad, Judicial Watch said, including “anyone who used a credit card or engaged in other transactions in the Washington D.C. area before and during the massive protest and subsequent rioting at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.”

The FBI previously told Judicial Watch and the U.S. District that it neither confirmed nor denied the existence of such records.

“We want the details on what looks to be an unprecedented abuse of the financial privacy of countless innocent Americans by big banks and the FBI,” Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said in a statement.

“The FBI’s coverup should be rejected and the records made public.”

Jan. 6 Investigations

The appeal is part of Judicial Watch’s expanding Jan. 6 investigation.

The agency filed suit against U.S. Capitol Police, seeking the release of what could be up to 16,000 hours of security and other videos from the Capitol grounds on the day of the violent breach.

The USCP has argued that the videos and emails sought by Judicial Watch are not public records, there is no public interest in their release, and “sovereign immunity” shields the department from legal efforts to compel their release.

In 2021, Judicial Watch released more than 1,000 pages of police and medical examiner records on the shooting death of Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt on Jan. 6.

The public-accountability group sued for the records under the federal Freedom of Information Act.

A lawsuit filed against the Department of Justice resulted in the release of a report on the Babbitt shooting that concluded there is “insufficient evidence” of excessive force by USCP Lt. Michael Byrd, who shot and killed Babbitt at about 2.45 p.m. at the entrance to the Speaker’s Lobby in the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Conclusions reached in the DOJ report were strongly refuted by use-of-force expert Stan Kephart, who called the shooting a murder.

“She was shot and killed under color of authority by an officer who violated not only the law but his oath and committed an arrestable offense,” Kephart said in “The Real Story of Jan. 6,” a 2022 documentary by The Epoch Times.

More recently, Judicial Watch filed a FOIA lawsuit against the departments of defense and justice seeking all records relating to the secret housing of Byrd at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland after the Babbitt shooting.

It is not clear how Byrd came to be placed in secret housing at the military base.