there's a story that ......
As usual, the headlines and a lot of the reporting on this issue is misleading, and I suspect intentionally so....
there's a story that American Express, when asked by the FBI to turn over information on purchases made by people on FBI's radar regarding "January 6th", without being asked also turned over any historical gun purchases made by anyone on the list.
And this is, I think, an example of that...
Let's look at all the possible "angles of spin" in just this one statement....
First point,
Did/does American Express (or any credit card company) have records of the individual items purchased with one of their cards???
My understanding is (and please, if I am incorrect, do enlighten me) that the credit card companies do not. The have a record of how much was charged at what location, and when. NOT what individual items were purchased.
Next point,
without being asked also turned over any historical gun purchases made by anyone on the list.
If my first point is correct, the credit card companies DON'T KNOW what was purchased. If the FBI asked for ALL records of purchase during a given date range, what can the credit card company tell them other than $XXX was spent at XYZ store on a specific date???
Turning over that information would not specifically identify ANY gun purchase.
The entire matter is grossly misidentified in the headlines (and usually in the text, as well) because the proposed code ID does NOT cover firearm purchases specifically. It was to be a code for the ID of the RETAILER that sold guns, to ID them separately from "general retail" sales. It did not, and would not cover JUST gun purchases but everything sold at that retailer,
IN other words the credit card company might be able to tell the FBI that I spent $600 at Sportsman's Warehouse, but they can't tell the FBI if I bought cartridges or a canoe, because they don't know!
While the FBI might be able to use that information as a basis for further investigation, it is otherwise useless by itself. The store will have the record of what I bought, and the FBI could go to them and find out, but the info from the credit card company only tells them I bought something, not what.
And this doesn't even remotely consider the possibility that no credit card information matters if the suspect(s) paid in CASH....
