Donald Trump filed a $5 billion lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase and its CEO Jamie Dimon in a Miami, Florida court on Thursday, accusing the largest bank in the United States of an allegedly politically-motivated severing of ties with the President following the January 6 riots at the nation’s Capitol Building.
Trump had previously enjoyed a relationship with the bank for several decades.
Alejandro Brito, Trump’s lawyer, claims that following the riots, JPMorgan Chase sought to distance themselves from the president and, acting “without warning or remedy,” mandated that he and his affiliated businesses move hundreds of millions of their dollars out of their accounts; Brito purports that this represents a violation of both JPMorgan’s code of conduct and laws governing unfair and deceptive trade practices.
“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, quoting JPMorgan code of conduct, states. “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 that the bank sought to distance itself from Trump and his conservative views following the riots, and that – as a result of JPMorgan’s actions – he and his family were “blacklisted” by several other banks as a result, causing harm to his finances and reputation.
“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 says.
A JPMorgan spokesperson commented on the lawsuit to the media, denying the allegations on the part of Trump that the closing of his accounts were motivated by politics.
“JPMC does not close accounts for political or religious reasons. We do close accounts because they create legal or regulatory risk for the company,” they said. “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.”
