Griffin: ‘The SEC’s surveillance database poses a threat to Americans’ liberty and privacy and raises serious constitutional concerns’

LITTLE ROCK – Attorney General Tim Griffin today led a coalition of eight state attorneys general in sending a letter urging leaders in the United States Congress to support legislation to protect investors’ privacy and issued the following statement:

“We are urging Senate and House leadership to support S. 2230/H.R. 4551, the Protecting Investors’ Personally Identifiable Information Act. The legislation would serve as a hedge against the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT), which collects and stores information on every trade made by every investor. The CAT will be a massive repository linking this information to investors’ names, addresses, and birth years, creating a tempting target for hackers and identity thieves.

“Further, by subjecting every person with any money in the stock market to constant surveillance without any suspicion of wrongdoing, the SEC’s surveillance database poses a threat to Americans’ liberty and privacy and raises serious constitutional concerns.”

Griffin was joined in the letter by the attorneys general of Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, South Carolina, Utah and West Virginia.

To read the letter, click here.

About Attorney General Tim Griffin

Tim Griffin was sworn in as the 57th Attorney General of Arkansas on January 10, 2023, having previously served as the state’s 20th Lieutenant Governor from 2015-2023. From 2011-2015, Griffin served as the 24th representative of Arkansas’s Second Congressional District, where he served on the House Committee on Ways and Means, House Armed Services Committee, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, House Committee on Ethics and House Committee on the Judiciary while also serving as a Deputy Whip for the Majority.

Griffin has served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps for more than 26 years and currently holds the rank of colonel. In 2005, Griffin was mobilized to active duty as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in Mosul, Iraq.

He is currently serving as the Commander of the 2d Legal Operations Detachment in New Orleans, Louisiana. His previous assignments include serving as the Commander of the 134th Legal Operations Detachment at Fort Liberty (née Bragg), North Carolina, and as a Senior Legislative Advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness at the Pentagon. Griffin earned a master’s degree in strategic studies as a Distinguished Honor Graduate from the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.

Griffin also served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Political Affairs for President George W. Bush; Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice; Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Arkansas; Senior Investigative Counsel, Government Reform and Oversight Committee, U.S. House of Representatives; and Associate Independent Counsel, Office of Independent Counsel David M. Barrett, In re: HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.

Griffin is a graduate of Magnolia High School, Hendrix College in Conway, and Tulane Law School in New Orleans. He attended graduate school at Oxford University. He is admitted to practice law in Arkansas (active) and Louisiana (inactive). Griffin attends Immanuel Baptist Church and lives in Little Rock with his wife, Elizabeth, a Camden native, and their three children.