The Patriot Post® · Gov't Claims Firearms Weren't Targeted in Operation Choke Point

What’s the big deal? That’s more or less the conclusion of the Obama Justice Department’s review of “Operation Choke Point,” an FDIC initiative that purports to investigate credit card fraud but was used as a back-door attack on gun shops and gun manufacturers and other non-PC businesses. The FDIC, an ostensibly independent agency, deemed some gun companies “high risk,” and banks terminated business relations in response. The scheme was eventually shut down (or was it?) after an uproar. Sounds too outrageous to be true, right? Not according to the feds. The Daily Signal reports, “An internal review of the Justice Department’s controversial initiative known as Operation Choke Point found no evidence that agency attorneys intentionally used the program to target legal and legitimate businesses such as pawn shops, gun dealers and payday lenders.” Deputy Counsel G. Bradley Weinsheimer says, “Based on the results of this inquiry, [the Office of Professional Responsibility] concluded that Department of Justice attorneys involved in Operation Choke Point did not engage in professional misconduct.” According to the Signal, OPR would only concede “that Justice Department employees ‘seem to disparage payday lending practices’ and were ‘clearly pleased’ by the effect Operation Choke Point was having on the payday lending industry.” Translation: They were pleased by the effect it was having on the Second Amendment.