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Capital One closed President Donald Trump's bank accounts in 2021 after the bank detected financial activity with characteristics of money laundering, the institution revealed in a court filing submitted over the weekend.
The court filing is linked to a lawsuit filed against Capital One by one of Trump's financial holding companies shortly after he was sworn into office for a second term. Trump alleges that Capital One illegally closed his accounts for political reasons following the January 6 attacks on the Capitol building.
Capital One wants the lawsuit dismissed.
“The closure was the result of months of analysis and a careful review by Capital One's AML team, in accordance with the bank's policies and regulatory guidelines,” the bank indicated in the court filing. The term “AML” is an abbreviation for “anti-money laundering”.
Trump has sued Capital One, as well as JPMorgan Chase, for allegedly closing his access to banking services after he left office in 2021. “Debanking” occurs when banks close customer accounts because they consider them to represent financial, legal, or reputational risks to the entities.
Both banks deny that they severed their relationships with the president, his children, and other related businesses for political reasons. The lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase seeks $5 billion in damages. JPMorgan has stated that it does not close accounts for political reasons, but it does close accounts “with or without cause” and also those that generate “legal or regulatory risk”.
In July, after the original lawsuit remained inactive for months, the president's lawyers filed an amended complaint alleging that the bank closed his access to banking services for political reasons. The bank maintains that the new accusations are baseless and claims that the complaint relies on “new theories based on cherry-picked quotes”.
President Trump's legal team rejected that claim on Monday but did not address the bank's internal findings.
“Capital One, along with other big banks, cut off President Trump, his family, and his businesses from banking services for blatantly political reasons,” a spokesperson for Trump's legal team declared. “President Trump’s powerful lawsuit holds Capital One accountable for its shameful conduct, and we look forward to bringing this matter to a just and proper conclusion.”
Conservatives argue that banks are cutting off access to banking services for them and their political allies. The accusations intensified after Operation Choke Point, an initiative during the Obama administration in which regulators pressured banks to cut financial services to the firearms industry, tobacco, and predatory lenders, among others. The cryptocurrency industry alleged that it was also a victim of bank service closures during the Biden administration.
Trump signed an executive order in August 2025 titled “Ensuring Fair Banking for All Americans,” which directs federal regulators to end inspections of banks regarding who they were doing business with. The Trump administration has also subpoenaed records from the largest banks as part of an investigation into alleged bank service closures.
Trump had more than 300 bank accounts at Capital One before they were closed. The accounts were for a variety of businesses under his brand, from a golf course to a winery. Trump banked with Capital One for more than a decade until they closed the accounts.
In the court filing, Capital One claimed that it had no motive to make a political statement with the closure of Trump's accounts in 2021 and that the action was entirely due to the bank's anti-money laundering experts flagging activity in the accounts.
“Capital One never made the termination decision or its internal confidential process that led to the closure public, and allowed the plaintiffs several months (and granted several extensions) to find new banking services, which they did,” the bank noted.
[Publicidad]