President Trump has filed a lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase over its debanking practices.
The complaint seeks at least $5 billion in damages. “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,” the lawsuit states.
“In essence, JPMC debanked Plaintiffs’ Accounts because it believed that the political tide at the moment favored doing so,” it continues.
JPMorgan Chase said in response to the lawsuit that it believes 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 company said. “Our company does not close accounts for political or religious reasons. We do close accounts because they create legal or regulatory risk for the company. We regret having to do so, but often rules and regulatory expectations lead us to do so. 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 this Administration’s efforts to prevent the weaponization of the banking sector.”
President Trump threatened to sue the bank earlier this month, stating, “I’ll be suing JPMorgan Chase over the next two weeks for incorrectly and inappropriately DEBANKING me after the January 6th Protest, a protest that turned out to be correct for those doing the protesting — The Election was RIGGED!”
Trump’s action comes as he signed an executive order in August aimed at protecting Americans from financial discrimination. “It is the policy of the United States that no American should be denied access to financial services because of their constitutionally or statutorily protected beliefs, affiliations, or political views, and to ensure that politicized or unlawful debanking is not used as a tool to inhibit such beliefs, affiliations, or political views,” the order declares. “Banking decisions must instead be made on the basis of individualized, objective, and risk-based analyses.”
