A press release from  Lennie Jarratt, a prominent Lake County Tea Party activist who ran unsuccessfully for a Republican State Senate nomination last year:

Is the Government Using Banks to Target Conservatives Groups?

Since the IRS scandal broke it is clear that the government knows no bounds in how it can politically go after it’s opponents. Given my recent experience with the bank account for my Political PAC being closed, I have to wonder if the government is also using banks to go after Conservatives.

I started a non-partisan group in March of 2012, For Our Children’s Future. It’s mission is as follows:

1. Recruit, train and help candidates who will bring fiscal sustainability and integrity to their elected office while maintaining a social safety net for those truly in need
2. Empower parents to ensure their children are not trapped in failing schools
3. Fight the efforts that limit taxpayer rights by forcing property owners to do their own tax appeals or hire a lawyer

In February 2013, I started a Political Action Committee to help fulfill our mission and opened a bank account. Our bank account was closed without notification at the end of April. I only found out it had been closed when a check I had donated to a candidate could not be cashed. You can view the timeline below for more detailed information on the closing.

Some of the additional information that was requested by my bank was the following:

• List our top 4 donors
• List the top 4 candidates/organization we donated to
• What was the purpose of our bank account
• What was our groups mission
• What is our mission/purpose
• What is our funding profile

At the time, I thought this was strange for a bank to be asking me for this information.

Especially since I had provided them my D-1 Statement of Organization at account opening.

Neither I, nor anyone else I have told about this has ever heard of a bank requesting this type of information.

Specifically the Fed already has access to all checks in/out of a bank account.

Also, the donations/expenditures are always on the State Board of Elections for all to see.

When the IRS targeting conservative scandals broke, I started questioning more about whether the government is using banks to now target conservatives as well.

It appears they very well may be.

What a chilling thought for every citizen to know that the IRS is targeting individuals who utiliize the first amendment to disagree with the President or big government.

Now the possibility is the government is also using banks as well to stifle our first amendment rights.

This should send every American citizen and politicians who believe in freedom scrambling to put on end to these intimidation tactics.

If these can be used against conservatives, it will eventually be used against anyone whose political views differ from those in power.

Timeline:

• February – Opened bank account
• End of March – Received notice from bank asking for information
• April 12th – Returned documentation requested to National and local offices
• April 30th – Account closed without notification
• May 3rd – Notified by a candidate the account was closed and his checked was not cashed
• May 3rd – Contacted local bank. Account was closed with note that I did not send back information
• May 4th – Contacted National Bank Offices.
  • Account was being researched, again stated I did not return document
  • Local branch manager called and the national office would not talk to him. He told me to call every hour until I got it resolved
  • Called national office again, account still being researched, but they received my documents on April 17.
  • National office called me back a few hours later, they claimed I had left a couple fields blank.
  • Refiled the paperwork by fax
  • Account reinstated 24 hours later
  • Was told this was due to the Patriot Act banking provisions although they could not or would not give me more specific details on the rule used to close my account without notification.

= = = = =
And the bank in question?

TCF Bank, the one located at lots of Jewel supermarkets.