JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the US, acknowledged for the first time in court documents that it shuttered accounts for President Trump and several of his businesses in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, US Capitol riot.
“In February 2021, JPMorgan informed Plaintiffs that certain accounts maintained with JPMorgan’s CB [commercial bank] and PB [private bank] would be closed,” the banking giant’s former chief administrative officer, Dan Wilkening, wrote a court filing last week.
Trump has sued JPMorgan for $5 billion over accusations that his bank accounts were shuttered for political purposes, a suit that prompted the bank’s admission.
Before the court filing, JPMorgan had refused to publicly acknowledge that it debanked Trump, instead discussing hypotheticals as to why it might close an account.
The bank’s bigwigs previously hinted that the closure came from risk assessments rather than politics.
“People have to grow up here, OK, and stop making up things and stuff like that,” JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon vented to Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures” when pressed about the debanking accusations.
“I can’t talk about an individual account. We do not … debank people for religious or political affiliations.”
Dimon previously suggested that regulatory snarls were to blame and he backed efforts to end debanking.
“I want to change these rules. I actually applaud the Trump administration, who’s trying to say that debanking is bad and we should change the rules,” Dimon added in the interview. “Well, damnit, I have been asking to change the rules now for 15 years. So change the rules.”
The president’s team has alleged that he was debanked due to JPMorgan’s concerns about reputational risks in the aftermath of the Capitol riot.
Debaking is when banks close a customer’s account and cut them off from receiving loans or other types of services. Over recent years, many prominent conservative voices have raised concerns about debanking, particularly when it comes to right-leaning organizations such as gun rights groups.
“In a devastating concession that proves President Trump’s entire claim, JPMorgan Chase admitted to unlawfully and intentionally de-banking President Trump, his family, and his businesses, causing overwhelming financial harm,” Trump’s legal team wrote in a statement in response to the bank’s admission.
“President Trump is standing up for all those wrongly debanked by JPMorgan Chase and its cohorts, and will see this case to a just and proper conclusion.”
Trump’s suit had alleged that, in addition to debanking the then 45th president, JPMorgan added him to some sort of blacklist to prevent him from doing business elsewhere. The banking giant slammed those accusations, calling them “unclear.”
“Nor is it plausible that JPMorgan could create such a list consistent with the complex federal regulatory scheme to which it is subject,” the bank’s legal team wrote in a court filing.
JPMorgan is attempting to transfer the case, which Trump’s team originally filed in Florida, up to New York.The company has described the lawsuit as meritless.
The Trump Organization has also sued Capital One over similar debanking claims, which are currently playing out in an ongoing case.
