President Donald Trump has followed through with his weekend threat to sue megabank JPMorgan Chase and its CEO Jamie Dimon. Trump filed a lawsuit Thursday in a Florida court seeking $5 billion for the bank’s alleged debanking activities shortly after the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol by the president’s supporters.
Trump’s attorney filed the lawsuit in Miami on behalf of the president and several of his hospitality companies.
The suit claims hypocrisy on the part of the bank for saying it abides by the “letter and spirit of the laws and regulations everywhere” it does business by “unilaterally—and without warning or remedy — terminating several of Plaintiff’s bank accounts.”
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Trump alleges the bank closed his accounts in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. Trump previously said the bank gave him 20 days to move millions of dollars out of his accounts after pressure from the Biden administration.
JPMorgan denied the claims, saying it doesn’t close accounts for political reasons.
“While we regret President Trump has sued us, we believe the suit has no merit. We respect the President’s right to sue us and our right to defend ourselves – that’s what courts are for,” the bank said in a statement to Straight Arrow News.
Unidentified sources told the New York Post that the Biden-era Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the FDIC and the Federal Reserve pressured JPMorgan. People within those entities reportedly told the bank that keeping Trump on their books could “create compliance problems tied to appearances, even absent any criminal wrongdoing.”
Weekend warning
Trump telegraphed the lawsuit over the weekend in a social media post, denying a Wall Street Journal story that claimed the president offered to name Dimon as chair of the Federal Reserve.
“A front page Article in The Fake News Wall Street Journal states, without any verification, that I offered Jamie Dimon, of JPMorgan Chase, the job of Fed Chairman,” Trump said. “Why wouldn’t The Wall Street Journal call me to ask whether or not such an offer was made? I would have very quickly told them, ‘NO,’ and that would have been the end of the story.”
Dimon said a short time after the Journal story was published that there was “no chance, no way, no how, for any reason,” that he would have taken up any offer to run the Federal Reserve.
The Justice Department is currently investigating current Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, looking into the Federal Reserve building’s renovation. Powell has said the investigation is politically motivated and has denied wrongdoing.
