Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the The Daily Wire. The author of this post is Zach Jewell.
President Donald Trump filed a $5 billion lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase and the bank's CEO Jamie Dimon on Thursday, alleging that it closed Trump's accounts in 2021 over
"woke" motivations following the January 6 riot at the Capitol.
The suit argues that JPMorgan, one of the largest banks in the United States, violated its own principles when it terminated multiple accounts belonging to Trump and his business.
"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."
The lawsuit was filed by Trump's attorney, Alejandro Brito, in a Florida state court in Miami, Fox Business reported. The suit says that on February 19, 2021, JPMorgan notified Trump and his business that their accounts would be closed in two months, adding that the bank
"did not provide Plaintiffs any recourse, remedy, or alternative - its decision was final and unequivocal."
"Because JPMC did not provide Plaintiffs and their affiliated entities with any advance notice before February 19, 2021, and unilaterally debanked Plaintiffs by terminating Plaintiffs' Accounts, Plaintiffs suffered considerable financial harm and losses caused not only by the interruption to their access to JPMC's banking services, but also by the devastating impact on Plaintiffs' ability to transact and access their monies, and by having to enter into less favorable business arrangements with other financial institutions," Trump's lawyer argues.
The suit also alleges that JPMorgan placed Trump and his business on a
"blacklist," which
"is accessible by federally regulated banks and is comprised of individuals and entities that have a history of malfeasant acts and are otherwise non-compliant with applicable banking rules and regulations."
JPMorgan has also been accused of debanking conservative groups such as the National Committee for Religious Freedom, which was founded by former Republican Senator and Ambassador Sam Brownback. The bank denies accusations that it has closed accounts for political or religious reasons.
The bank said on Thursday that it is confident that Trump's lawsuit against it will not succeed.
"While we regret President Trump has sued us, we believe the suit has no merit," JPMorgan said in a statement shared with The Daily Wire.
The statement continues,
"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 the Administration's efforts to prevent the weaponization of the banking sector."
After backlash to JPMorgan's decision to debank Trump and other conservatives, the bank changed some of its policies and clarified that customers could not be discriminated against for political or religious views. Dimon said last year that his bank does not
"debank people because of political or religious affiliations."
"But there are a lot of things that can be fixed. We should fix them," Dimon added.
"The rules and requirements are so onerous, and it does cause people to be debanked, who in my opinion, should not be debanked."
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