Trump sues JPMorgan and Jamie Dimon for dropping him as a customer after Jan. 6 attack
(CNN) — President Donald Trump is suing JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s largest bank, and its CEO Jamie Dimon, alleging it improperly dropped him as a client in 2021 for political reasons.
The suit in state court in Florida seeks $5 billion in damages.
The suit says that the bank notified Trump and his various businesses it was closing their banking accounts at the bank in February 2021, giving them 60 days notice before the closures went into effect.
The suit also charges that Trump, his family and various businesses were placed on a “blacklist” by JPMorgan “for any wealth management accounts that they have title to.” The suit alleges that placement on the blacklist was authorized by Dimon and that being placed on the blacklist led other banks not to deal with Trump and the other plaintiffs in the suit.
The suit is just the latest of a series of lawsuits filed by Trump against critics and perceived enemies seeking billions of dollars in damages, including against media companies such as CBS, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the BBC.
The suit also comes one day after Dimon, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, said that a proposal by Trump for a 10% cap on credit card interest rates “would be an economic disaster” because it would cut many American households off from access to credit.
The complaint argues that the bank failed to provide a reason for terminating the accounts, and Trump and his businesses “have subsequently learned that they were debanked as a result of political discrimination against President Trump, the Trump Organization, its affiliated entities, and/or the Trump family.”
The lawsuit also said that Trump reached out to Dimon directly about the accounts being closed and that Dimon assured Trump that he would get back to him to address the account closures, “but, ultimately, never did.”
JPMorgan Chase said the suit is without merit and it will fight it in court.
“While we regret President Trump has sued us, we believe the suit has no merit,” said Trish Wexler, spokeswoman for JPMorgan (JPM). “We respect the President’s right to sue us and our right to defend ourselves – that’s what courts are for.”
Wexler said JPMorgan does not close accounts for political or religious reasons.
“We do close accounts because they create legal or regulatory risk for the company,” Wexler said. “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.”
But Trump’s suit claims that JPMorgan Chase “has a notable history of debanking entities and individuals that have conservative political beliefs.”
Debanking complaints
Trump has previously accused JPMorgan and Bank of America of rejecting his business after his first term ended, and he has decried so-called debanking throughout his second term.
At last year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, five days after Trump took office for the second time, Trump publicly excoriated Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan over alleged debanking.
“I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives, because many conservatives complain that the banks are not allowing them to do business within the bank,” Trump said. “You and Jamie and everybody… What you’re doing is wrong.”
Bank of America spokesperson Bill Halldin told CNN last year that the bank has “no political litmus test” for its clients, adding that it serves 70 million clients, including conservatives.
Trump in August signed an executive order that seeks to punish banks for restricting services to customers based on their political or religious beliefs. But Americans don’t have a legal right to a bank account, and lenders often turn away people or businesses to comply with a mountain of rules and regulations designed to protect the financial system.
Major banks, including JPMorgan, have repeatedly denied accusations that they have systemically targeted conservative groups, but they have welcomed the president’s efforts to scale back regulations.
But the suit said its past actions dropping accounts of conservative groups “undermine and belie Mr. Dimon’s statements.”
‘Pretty unusual’
Although Trump claims his accounts were closed because JPMorgan viewed him as a political risk, the real question the bank addressed was whether Trump posed a financial risk, argues Peter Conti-Brown, a financial regulation and legal studies professor at Wharton.
“President Trump’s lawsuit is frivolous,” said Conti-Brown. “The president’s record of stiffing his business partners and evading his responsibilities as a debtor is long and storied. No bank should be forced to do business with a financial risk like that.”
Jeremy Kress, a business law professor at the University of Michigan, said the lawsuit is “pretty unusual.”
“It’s ironic for the President to be suing JPMorgan at the same time that his hand-picked bank regulators are aggressively deregulating JPM and other big banks,” said Kress, a former official at the Federal Reserve.
This story has been updated with additional context and developments.
CNN’s Allison Morrow contributed reporting.
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