JPMorgan Chase has admitted it closed President Donald Trump‘s accounts shortly after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, in what is the first public acknowledgment from the bank that it did so.
“In February 2021, JPMorgan informed Plaintiffs that certain accounts maintained with JPMorgan’s CB and PB would be closed,” JPMorgan’s former chief administrative officer Dan Wilkening wrote in a recent court filing, with “CB” and “PB” referring to the company’s commercial bank and private bank.
The filing comes nearly a month after Trump sued the financial behemoth and its CEO, Jamie Dimon, for allegedly “debanking” him, or unlawfully blocking access to financial accounts. Trump is seeking $5 billion in damages from the bank, claiming that they discriminated against him for political reasons.
JPMorgan has so far dismissed the lawsuit, with a company spokeswoman telling Fox News last month it has “no merit” while also outlining the bank’s rationale for closing accounts.
“JPMC does not close accounts for political or religious reasons,” the spokeswoman said at the time. “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. 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.”
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More recently, the bank has sought to get Dimon off the lawsuit, with lawyers for JPMorgan alleging on Thursday that he was “fraudulently” included in Trump’s complaint. They claim Trump’s lawyers added Dimon to the lawsuit for the sole purpose of keeping the case in a Florida state court, with JPMorgan arguing it should therefore move to the federal level.
They also called Trump’s accusations of politically-motivated discrimination “threadbare,” claiming they lack “sufficient facts.”
