JPMorgan Chase informed Donald Trump and his hotel business in February 2021 that it would be closing their bank accounts at the institution following the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, after Joe Biden defeated Trump in the U.S. Presidential election.
These revelations, reported Saturday, February 21, by Reuters, are contained in documentation from the lawsuit brought by the current president against the bank and its CEO, Jamie Dimon, in which Trump sought $5 billion in damages.
According to Reuters, the bank did not specify in letters dated February 19, 2021, the reasons for closing the accounts of Trump and the Trump Organization, stating only that it is sometimes determined that “the interests of a client can no longer be served through a relationship with JP Morgan Private Bank.”
The news agency reported it contacted a JPMorgan spokesperson but did not receive any comment on the matter, whereas the bank had previously stated that Trump’s lawsuit is without merit.
A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team said the release of the letters is “a devastating admission” and proves “all allegations made by President Trump” in the lawsuit, revealing that the bank “admitted to illegally and intentionally excluding President Trump, his family and his businesses from their banking accounts, causing enormous financial harm.”
In the lawsuit, Trump accused JPMorgan, considered the largest financial institution in the U.S., of violating its own policies by targeting him to capitalize on the “political wave” following his first term as president.
The letters regarding the account closures emerged as part of a motion initiated by JPMorgan to transfer Trump’s $5 billion damages claim from federal court in Miami to New York.
