U.S. President Donald Trump filed a $5 billion (about 7.3 trillion won) damages lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jamie Dimon. He claims that his and his family's accounts were unilaterally closed for political reasons after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Trump filed the complaint on the 22nd (local time) with the Miami-Dade County court in Florida. In the complaint, he said JPMorgan halted financial transactions without any prior warning or sufficient explanation. He also wrote that, on orders from CEO Dimon, he and related enterprises were placed on an "internal blacklist for identifying wrongdoers."
Trump's legal team said the move rode the wave of "political risk avoidance" that had spread across finance at the time. They added that the bank tried to cut reputational and regulatory risk by excluding certain financial consumers in line with political trends.
According to Bloomberg, the suit includes claims of defamation, breach of the duty of good faith, and discrimination in contractual relations. Alejandro Brito, an attorney for Trump, said, "Restricting financial services because of political leaning violates Florida's consumer protection law."
Trump's side said that not only JPMorgan but also Bank of America rejected deposits transactions exceeding $1 billion, arguing that conservative figures are being "effectively de-banked" across the financial sector. This is cited as a core example in the recent U.S. conservative camp's controversy over "political de-banking."
JPMorgan pushed back immediately. In a statement, the bank said, "Account closures are unrelated to political considerations and are standard internal judgments based on legal and regulatory risk." According to the New York Times (NYT), JPMorgan explained, "When there are concerns about anti-money-laundering, potential sanctions violations, or reputational risk, account freezes are standard banking practice." Spokesperson Trish Wexler said, "We will prove our position in court."
The lawsuit ties into the Trump administration's push to "de-politicize" the financial system. In August last year, Trump signed an executive order limiting de-banking that excludes financial consumers for political reasons. In September, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) also began reviewing regulatory improvements to prevent unfair refusals of transactions by financial institutions. Reuters said, "The administration is applying comprehensive pressure on the financial sector to strengthen political neutrality."
In legal and financial circles, the suit is seen as potentially resetting the line between banks' discretion over financial consumers and the public nature of financial services, rather than ending as a mere personal dispute. It is also considered unusual that CEO Dimon is named personally as a defendant. NBC reported, "As criticism of de-banking intensifies among conservatives, this lawsuit could become a catalyst that shakes up the future financial regulatory landscape."