Trump Administration Officially Terminates ‘Misguided’ Operation Choke Point
RedState
One of the amazing things about the Obama administration was the utterly lawless way in which it acted in order to enforce its agenda. Most of us are familiar with Fast & Furious, the infamous ‘gun walking’ operation on our southern border. This operation was conducted in order to establish a fact pattern that would allow more regulations of firearms. Weapons were sold illegally, by people acting on behalf of the federal government, to known criminals for the express purpose of increasing deaths in Mexico from firearms purchased in America. Likewise, you can see with portions of ObamaCare being funded out of essentially slush funds.
Another of these programs was “Operation Choke Point.” Under the guise of combating financial fraud, the federal government pressured banks to sever business relationships with certain businesses that the government deemed to be at high risk for fraud. They did this verbally and the message was delivered by bank examiners from the FDIC. As a result, thousands of small businesses, particularly gun dealers and payday lenders, found their bank accounts closed or frozen and no way to process financial transactions. The beauty of this, of course, was there was no record of the government acting, it was simply regulators saying, “nice little bank you have here, it would be a shame if it were put out of business and you were hauled before a grand jury.”
Even though Congress didn’t act, some members of Congress acted like they might act some day and today the Trump administration officially pulled the plug on this illegal threatening of banks because the government didn’t like the business some of their customers were in.
Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd sent a letter to Congress calling Operation Choke Point misguided and saying:
…We share your view that law abiding businesses should not be targeted simply for operating in an industry that a particular administration might disfavor. Enforcement decisions should always be made based on facts and the applicable law…
…
…We reiterate that the Department will not discourage the provision of financial services to lawful industries, including businesses engaged in short-term lending and firearms-related activities…
So thankful for this: Justice Department to end Obama-era 'Operation Choke Point’ https://t.co/b9GiwR3bVD
— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) August 18, 2017
We applaud @POTUS Trump Justice Department for decisively ending Operation Choke Point https://t.co/N9WDQr0iSr
— Financial Services GOP (@FinancialCmte) August 18, 2017
On behalf of NRA’s members, I want to thank @POTUS & @jeffsessions for ending ‘Operation Choke Point’- @ChrisCoxNRA https://t.co/oY0OSIZc4m pic.twitter.com/7dm4J5MfNQ
— NRA (@NRA) August 18, 2017
It is a slow process but you can see how the illegal actions of the Obama administration are slowly but surely being halted and shut down.