ADF senior counsel testifies to Congress alongside Jordan Peterson

Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Jeremy Tedesco on Thursday testified before members of Congress about financial institutions’ alleged suppression of conservatives and their views. Other notable guests included the bestselling author of “12 Rules for Life” and “Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life,” psychologist Dr. Jordan B. Peterson. Brian Knight, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University also offered testimony and fielded questions.

This hearing was about the suppression of conservative views? Tedesco told the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government that some of the country’s largest banks had worked with law enforcement to profile Americans as potential “terror threats” if they purchased certain religious texts or firearms. Tedesco provided several examples of Bank of America canceling its accounts with religious organizations such as Indigenous Advance Ministries and a Memphis church, Servants of Christ, that he said supported IAM. He said Bank of America representatives told them the bank discovered certain risks associated with the organizations’ business models, but declined to identify those risks. Tedesco also cataloged the details of JPMorgan Chase shutting down the National Committee for Religious Freedom’s account with the bank. JPMorgan Chase then agreed to re-open the account if the NCRF supplied a list of its donors and its criteria for choosing which political candidates to support. He described the instances above and others as representations of “systemic censorship risks” in the finance sector.

Does this have anything to do with the government? Tedesco called for government action in response to the “de-banking” maneuvers. Those actions included policies to increase transparency and the passage of the Fair Access to Banking Act, which has been introduced in the House.

What did Peterson and Knight have to say? Peterson in a written statement told Congress that Americans were falling prey to digital observance systems much like China’s “SkyNet” program. He said the commercial sector was colluding with the government in the creation of such systems, which could lead to government suppression of what it considers “deviation from the desired end.” Knight argued in another written statement that the government can obtain bank records about individuals warrantlessly and without due process. He explained that the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in the case of Carpenter v. the United States suggests that U.S. citizens are protected from that kind of warrantless government oversight.

Dig deeper: Read Kristen Waggoner’s column in WORLD Opinions explaining the issues with big banks targeting certain Americans’ finances.