Operation Choke Point
32
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19
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16
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Search complete. 32 mentions across 19 episodes found for "Operation Choke Point".
Oct 16, 2026
Joe GettyHOST
Um, the, uh, the president, this is one of the very good things he, he's done, had said that targets of debanking have suffered frozen payrolls, debts, and crushing interest, and other significant harms to their livelihoods, reputations, and financial well-being.
Joe GettyHOST
In particular, Trump criticized Operation Choke Point, a Justice Department initiative launched during the Obama administration, targeting banks whose clients included legal weapons distributors and payday lenders The 47, uh, page report did not specify the total number of de-banking examples uncovered by regulators, uh, but there were a hell of a lot of them, again, from George Floyd to January 6th to legal businesses to-
Jack ArmstrongHOST
Well, the i- the idea that-
Joe GettyHOST
...
Matt KittleHOST
Mm-hmm.
Jeremy TedescoGUEST
Operation Choke Point 1.0 was what the regulatory agency abuse of reputational risk was ultimately found to be called.
Jeremy TedescoGUEST
And that was an attempt by the Obama administration to push out disfavored industries, even though they were purely legal, because of- A loose understanding of reputational risk.
Jeremy TedescoGUEST
And then it just continued to, to escalate from there.
Warren DavidsonGUEST
I mean, weaponized government, they take the power, uh, the government's trusted to use to protect people, and they use it for, um, malicious purposes, frankly, partisan purposes.
Warren DavidsonGUEST
Um, under Obama, uh, President Obama, they had something known as Operation Chokepoint, which is they used the bank regulators to pressure banks to debank political rivals.
Warren DavidsonGUEST
So that was pretty bad.
Warren DavidsonGUEST
There wasn't a full reckoning on that, and so they said, "Why not do it again?" So i- under, uh, Joe Biden, the bank regulators were debanking people again, and the banks w- would say, "Well, you know, we're a private institution.
Andrew LangerHOST
We have evidence on the record of driving data being turned over by the car companies to insurance companies and people losing their coverage.
Andrew LangerHOST
You know, in fact, it's interesting because it does get us into, in fact, probably for the last segment of the show today, I want to spend some time talking about something called Operation Chokepoint, which was something that happened about 12 years ago.
Andrew LangerHOST
And the successor that we now understand happened under the Biden administration, where banks were shutting down the bank accounts of people they didn't like that they were doing business with.
Andrew LangerHOST
There's a trade-off that's involved here.
11 MINS LATER
Andrew LangerHOST
That's Darla Romfo, president and CEO of the Children's Scholarship Fund.
Andrew LangerHOST
Scholarshipfund.org. Go and check it out.
Andrew LangerHOST
Listen, when we come back, I want to talk about Operation Chokepoint, but I got to talk about this new Elizabeth Holmes movie.
Andrew LangerHOST
It's not really a documentary.
Andrew LangerHOST
We have evidence on the record of driving data being turned over by the car companies to insurance companies and people losing their coverage.
Andrew LangerHOST
You know, in fact, it's interesting because it does get us into, in fact, probably for the last segment of the show today, I want to spend some time talking about something called Operation Chokepoint, which was something that happened about 12 years ago.
Andrew LangerHOST
And the successor that we now understand happened under the Biden administration, where banks were shutting down the bank accounts of people they didn't like that they were doing business with.
Andrew LangerHOST
There's a trade-off that's involved here.
11 MINS LATER
Andrew LangerHOST
That's Darla Romfo, president and CEO of the Children's Scholarship Fund.
Andrew LangerHOST
Scholarshipfund.org. Go and check it out.
Andrew LangerHOST
Listen, when we come back, I want to talk about Operation Chokepoint, but I got to talk about this new Elizabeth Holmes movie.
Andrew LangerHOST
It's not really a documentary.
MikeHOST
There'd be like, if someone can't be bothered getting an AFSL, fine.
MikeHOST
But if they really try hard and then the government knocks them back and says, "No, you don't comply, you don't comply," then this is more of the Operation Chokepoint stuff that we've talked about before, squeezing which businesses can offer Bitcoin products.
MikeHOST
But the, uh, silver lining is something we reported on a few months ago was AUSTRAC was trying to bring a new, uh, an amendment to the, uh, KYC/AML law in Australia to give the AUSTRAC CEO powers to ban forms of money, and the example they gave was Bitcoin ATMs because they think they're a tangible public risk to Australians.
MikeHOST
Uh, that's the criteria.
Warren DavidsonGUEST
Yeah, that's right.
Warren DavidsonGUEST
So the bank regulators, it's called Operation Choke Point.
Warren DavidsonGUEST
They did this under Obama.
Brian ThomasHOST
Oh, sure.
Warren DavidsonGUEST
And, and then we said as Operation Choke Point 2.0, or, you know, 5.0, whatever iteration we're on here, where the banks are weaponized.
Warren DavidsonGUEST
And look, this is the same thing, right? If you think about cancel culture, this is kind of the whole woke heresy code, right? You're a heretic.
Warren DavidsonGUEST
You're a violate, in violation of this radical left, uh...
Warren DavidsonGUEST
I mean, you were enemy number one to the Biden administration.
Warren DavidsonGUEST
Yeah, that's right.
Warren DavidsonGUEST
So the bank regulators, it's called Operation Choke Point.
Warren DavidsonGUEST
They did this under Obama.
Brian ThomasHOST
Oh, sure.
Warren DavidsonGUEST
And, and then we said it was Operation Choke Point 2.0 or, you know, 5.0, whatever iteration we're on here, where the banks are weaponized.
Warren DavidsonGUEST
And look, this is the same thing, right? If you think about cancel culture, this is kind of the whole woke heresy code, right? You're a heretic.
Warren DavidsonGUEST
You're a violate, in violation of this radical left, uh...
Warren DavidsonGUEST
Biden administration.
Mike PiwowarskiHOST
So it'll be the individuals that pay, uh, out of their own pocket, you know, the, these, uh, these bank, uh, bank customers.
Mike PiwowarskiHOST
Um, Craig, this, this actually, uh, started during the second half of Obama's term under, uh, for, or was, uh, his eight years in office, uh, Operation Choke Point.
Mike PiwowarskiHOST
It was exposed then, uh, as, as, uh, you know, an embarrassing fact to them.
Mike PiwowarskiHOST
Uh, remember it was later carried out with, um, uh, uh, per, you know, uh, progressive groups with, with, with, uh, uh, uh, conservative groups.
Craig DeLuzHOST
If you were, uh, if you were a, a...
Craig DeLuzHOST
I hate using the term evangelical because it wasn't just evangelical Christians, but basically if you were seen as a Christian conservative or as what they would call a white nationalist or a Christian- sorry, a Christian nationalist, uh, then they went after you.
Mike PiwowarskiHOST
Yeah, Chokepoint was designed to go after, uh, firearms-
Craig DeLuzHOST
Right
Nicholas AnthonyGUEST
And if we set policies based on just the, the headline talk, we're still gonna be in this mess.
Nicholas AnthonyGUEST
It happened with Operation Choke Point back in 2013 when the government was shutting down financial services, and now it's repeating again, and if we don't fix this problem at the core, at the root of it, we're gonna see this again, probably not even in another 10 years.
Nicholas AnthonyGUEST
We'll probably see it in another five years.
Austin PetersenHOST
Now, WePay had a screening list that included MAGA and America First and Trump Won flag that was considered to be a red flag, but no government regulator wrote that list.
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