President Donald Trump has made a lot of hay about the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) unfairly persecuting Americans. But his administration is quietly setting up far more intrusive financial surveillance of citizens. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has set up a secretive unit that refers Americans to local police based on "suspicious" financial transactions, recent court documents reveal. Meanwhile, the Treasury Department is fighting to maintain a program that would require money transfer offices to report suspected illegal immigration.
Kyle William Olson, a licensed marijuana farmer in California, was pulled over and searched by the Montana Highway Patrol, who charged him with a DUI and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. Although patrolmen at the scene told Olson he was being pulled over for an obstructed license plate, his legal defense team obtained documents showing that the DHS flagged him to local police for "financial activity patterns commonly associated with illicit narcotics activity," which he shared with 404 Media.
