President Trump has launched a $5 billion lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase and its chief executive, Jamie Dimon, accusing the bank of cutting off his financial relationships for political reasons in the aftermath of Jan. 6.
The complaint, filed Thursday in Florida state court in Miami, asserts that the country’s largest bank abruptly terminated long-standing accounts connected to the president and his businesses in early 2021, ending a relationship that had spanned decades.
“JPMC debanked [Trump and his businesses] because it believed that the political tide at the moment favored doing so,” the lawsuit said.
According to the filing, Trump’s attorney Alejandro Brito argues the bank acted “without warning or remedy,” forcing Trump and related entities to relocate hundreds of millions of dollars within weeks and offering no avenue to appeal the decision. The suit contends this conduct ran contrary to JPMorgan’s own internal standards and constituted unfair and deceptive trade practices.
The complaint points to JPMorgan’s publicly stated ethics guidelines, quoting the bank’s code of conduct: “We set high expectations and hold ourselves accountable. We do the right thing — not necessarily the easy or expedient thing. We abide by the letter and spirit of the laws and regulations everywhere we do business and have zero tolerance for unethical behavior,” the lawsuit states, citing the bank’s code of conduct.
“Despite claiming to hold these principles dear, JPMC violated them by unilaterally — and without warning or remedy — terminating several of Plaintiff’s bank accounts,” the lawsuit claims.
The filing alleges the account closures were driven by what it characterizes as “political and social motivations,” asserting that JPMorgan sought to distance itself from Trump and his conservative positions following the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
It further claims the bank placed Trump, members of his family, and affiliated businesses on an internal “blacklist” shared with other federally regulated banks, a move the lawsuit says resulted in widespread refusals by other institutions to do business with him and caused extensive financial and reputational damage.
“Given that Plaintiffs have always complied with all applicable banking rules and regulations and their wealth management accounts were in good standing, JPMC’s publication of President Trump, the other Plaintiffs, the Trump Organization and its affiliated entities, and/or the Trump family’s names on this blacklist, is an intentional and malicious falsehood,” the lawsuit states.
Trump alleges that by circulating those names, JPMorgan Chase engaged in “an unfair and deceptive trade practice,” arguing the bank “had no legitimate basis to do so and knew that doing so would induce, and did in fact induce, other banking institutions not to deal with them.”
Responding to the suit, a JPMorgan spokesperson told The NY Post: “JPMC does not close accounts for political or religious reasons. We do close accounts because they create legal or regulatory risk for the company.”
“We regret having to do so but often rules and regulatory expectations lead us to do so,” the spokesperson added.
“We have been asking both this Administration and prior administrations to change the rules and regulations that put us in this position, and we support the Administration’s efforts to prevent the weaponization of the banking sector.”
The lawsuit comes amid a sharp deterioration in the relationship between Trump and JPMorgan, fueled by overlapping political, regulatory, and personal disputes.
In recent months, Dimon has publicly criticized several Trump administration policies, including warning that the Justice Department’s criminal probe into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell could threaten the central bank’s independence and potentially drive interest rates higher.
JPMorgan has also opposed a White House proposal to cap credit card interest rates at 10% for a year, with executives cautioning that such a move could limit access to credit, harm consumers, and disrupt financial markets.
Tensions resurfaced again after Dimon criticized Trump’s immigration enforcement approach at the World Economic Forum in Davos, urging more restrained rhetoric and questioning aggressive ICE tactics, comments that stood out as one of the clearest public rebukes of the president by a sitting Wall Street chief.
Trump has frequently used the prospect of litigation against entities he views as adversarial.
The president has previously reached settlements with Paramount, Disney’s ABC News, YouTube, and Meta over disputes tied to interviews, broadcast remarks, and the suspension of his social media accounts after Jan. 6.
Those matters were resolved without admissions of wrongdoing, with the companies opting to pay tens of millions of dollars rather than engage in extended court battles.
{Matzav.com}
