NEW YORK: US President Donald Trump sued banking giant JPMorgan Chase and its CEO Jamie Dimon for $5 billion on Thursday over allegations that JPMorgan debanked him and his businesses for political reasons after he left office in January 2021.
The lawsuit, filed in Miami-Dade County court in Florida, alleges that JPMorgan abruptly closed multiple accounts in February 2021 with just 60 days notice and no explanation. By doing so, Trump claims JPMorgan and Dimon cut the president and his businesses off from millions of dollars, disrupted their operations and forced Trump and the businesses to urgently open bank accounts elsewhere.
"JPMC debanked (Trump and his businesses) because it believed that the political tide at the moment favored doing so," the lawsuit alleges.
Debanking occurs when a bank closes the accounts of a customer or refuses to do business with a customer in the form of loans or other services. Once a relatively obscure issue in finance, debanking has become a politically charged issue in recent years, with conservative politicians arguing that banks have discriminated against them and their affiliated interests.
Debanking first became a national issue when conservatives accused the Obama administration of pressuring banks to stop extending services to gun stores and payday lenders under "Operation Choke Point."
Trump and other conservative figures have alleged that banks cut them off from their accounts under the umbrella term of "reputational risk" after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
Since Trump came back into office, the president's banking regulators have moved to stop any banks from using "reputational risk" as a reason for denying service to customers.
"JPMC's conduct ... is a key indicator of a systemic, subversive industry practice that aims to coerce the public to shift and re-align their political views," Trumps lawyers wrote in the lawsuit.
Trump accuses the bank of trade libel and accuses Dimon himself of violating Florida's Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
In a statement, JPMorgan said that it "regrets" that Trump sued the bank but insisted it did not close the accounts for political reasons.
"We believe the suit has no merit," a bank spokesperson said. "JPMC does not close accounts for political or religious reasons. We do close accounts because they create legal or regulatory risk for the company."