Revealed: Fed govt flagged ADF as 'domestic terrorist' threat, target for surveillance by major banks
The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel and Senior Vice President of Corporate Engagement Jeremy Tedesco regarding documents procured by the U.S. House of Representatives’ Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government which reveal that, as part of its efforts to urge financial institutions to monitor their customers to identify domestic threats, the U.S. Department of the Treasury shared a list of “hate groups” published by the hyper-partisan Institute for Strategic Dialogue. The list includes ADF and numerous other mainstream religious and conservative organizations that the federal government has associated with “domestic terrorists” and targeted for surveillance by major banks:
“This Orwellian surveillance of American citizens has no place in a free society. Neither does the federal government’s weaponization of the financial industry against peaceable religious and conservative groups. We won’t allow the federal government to treat us like domestic terrorists, nor accept its bullying and Big Brother tactics. The government is colluding with some of the most powerful corporations the world has ever known to censor Americans with mainstream conservative and religious views. This is a direct threat to our First Amendment freedoms. As I testified before the subcommittee today, the real victims of this regime of discriminatory de-banking are the American people. No matter who tries to cancel us, ADF will not be silenced or intimidated. We will continue to successfully defend the God-given freedoms of every American.”
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
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ABOUT Jeremy Tedesco
Jeremy Tedesco serves as senior counsel and senior vice president of corporate engagement for Alliance Defending Freedom. In this role, Tedesco leads ADF’s efforts to combat corporate cancel culture and build a business ethic that respects free speech, religious freedom, and human dignity. Immediately preceding his current role, Tedesco served as senior vice president for communications, during which time he was a lead convener of the Philadelphia Statement, a movement dedicated to restoring free speech and civil discourse. Previously, Tedesco litigated First Amendment cases at the highest levels. He was part of the legal team that represented cake artist Jack Phillips in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission before the U.S. Supreme Court and argued Phillips’ case at the Colorado Court of Appeals. He was also the lead brief writer in two other U.S. Supreme Court wins, Reed v. Town of Gilbert and Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn. Tedesco has also argued six times before five different federal appellate courts and founded and directed the ADF Center for Conscience Initiatives, where he led efforts to protect individuals from government-coerced speech. Tedesco earned his Juris Doctor in 2004 from the Regent University School of Law.