JPMorgan Chase this week acknowledged it closed President Trump’s bank accounts in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, The Associated Press reported.
In a court filing the bank submitted this week in Trump’s lawsuit against it, JPMorgan’s former chief administrative officer, Dan Wilkening, wrote, “In February 2021, JPMorgan informed Plaintiffs that certain accounts maintained with JPMorgan’s CB and PB would be closed,” according to the AP. The “PB” and “CB” stand for JPMorgan’s private and commercial banks, respectively.
The president filed suit against JPMorgan and its CEO, Jamie Dimon, last month. In a 26-page complaint, Alejandro Brito, Trump’s attorney, claimed that the financial institution “debanked” him for political reasons after Jan. 6.
The Capitol riot came after Trump sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to former President Biden.
“Plaintiffs are confident that JPMC’s unilateral decision came about as a result of political and social motivations, and JPMC’s unsubstantiated, ‘woke’ beliefs that it needed to distance itself from President Trump and his conservative political views,” Brito wrote.
JPMorgan said at the time the lawsuit had “no merit.”
The president and Republican lawmakers have long accused major banks of closing the accounts of conservative customers and organizations. The Trump Organization sued Capital One last March for closing more than 300 of its accounts after Jan. 6.
“In a devastating concession that proves President Trump’s entire claim, JPMorgan Chase admitted to unlawfully and intentionally de-banking President Trump, his family, and his businesses, causing overwhelming financial harm,” the president’s lawyers said in a statement, according to the AP.
“President Trump is standing up for all those wrongly debanked by JPMorgan Chase and its cohorts, and will see this case to a just and proper conclusion,” they added.
