Aug. 18, 2017, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning praised President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions for putting an end to Operation Choke Point, an Obama Administration initiative to “choke off” politically disfavored industries, like firearms manufacturers and payday lenders, from access to the banking system, announced by Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd in a letter to Capitol Hill:

“Operation Choke Point was one of the most underhanded tools of the Obama-Holder Justice Department to kill off legal, legitimate businesses — and that says something. Under Choke Point, these legitimate industries were lumped together with online pornography, ‘get rich’ products, and Ponzi schemes, on a list of businesses considered a ‘high risk’ for fraud, thereby intimidating banks into abandoning them.  Bullying banks into choking off the financial lifeblood of any business enterprise under the guise of fraud prevention was a prime example of the Obama Administration’s flagrant disrespect for the rule of law.  President Trump and Attorney General Sessions did the right thing by terminating this affront to justice and restoring integrity to the Justice Department and the federal financial regulators. Hopefully, this marks the first step toward restoring the good name of these legitimate, law-abiding enterprises.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 100 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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Feb. 4, 2016, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging members of the House of Representatives to support an amendment by U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) to H.R. 766 to help end abuses of Operation Choke Point:

“ALG strongly supports Representative Gosar’s common sense amendment to the H.R. 766 protecting customers of financial institutions by increasing transparency between them and the federal government. The federal government has no constitutional power to take actions against individuals with due process, and Gosar’s amendment will ensure that if a financial institution does take any action against an individual or business terminating their account at the behest of the feds, it must notify the customer why it is doing so.”

Attachments:

Amendment to H.R. 766, U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Feb. 4, 2016 at http://amendments-rules.house.gov/amendments/GOSAR_159_xml22161221432143.pdf

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Rick Manning.

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