(Via Breitbart)  The Justice Department’s “Operation Choke Point” is so flagrantly illegal it cannot continue in any form under the law, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Charman Darrell Issa’s staff said in a new report, setting up a constitutional confrontation between the legislative and executive branches of the federal government.

“In light of the Department’s obligation to act within the bounds of the law, and its avowed commitment not to ‘discourage or inhibit’ the lawful conduct of honest merchants, it is necessary to disavow and dismantle Operation Choke Point,” the report said.

The controversial Obama administration initiative known as Operation Choke Point was launched in 2013.

DOJ has said the program is targeted at fraud, but the oversight committee report provided evidence the program was “was created by the Justice Department to ‘choke out’ companies the Administration considers a ‘high risk’ or otherwise objectionable, despite the fact that they are legal businesses.”

In one internal document uncovered by the committee, Obama administration officials described banks cutting off an entire class of businesses – Internet payday lenders – as a “significant accomplishment” of the investigation. The document also acknowledged “the possibility that banks therefore may have decided to stop doing business with legitimate lenders” but said “solving that problem – if it exists – should be left up to the legitimate lenders themselves” who can make additional efforts to prove to banks they are not engaged in fraud.  (read more)