By David Thomas
Feb 21 (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase told President Donald Trump and his hospitality business in February 2021 it was closing their accounts at the bank, according to new documents released Friday as part of a $5 billion lawsuit Trump has filed against the bank and CEO Jamie Dimon.
Several businesses cut ties with Trump after the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters, including two law firms that represented him and the Trump Organization, and the PGA of America, which stripped Trump’s club in Bedminster, New Jersey, of the 2022 PGA Championship.
The bank did not list any specific reason for the account closures in its Feb. 19, 2021 letters to Trump and the Trump Organization. In one letter, the bank said it can sometimes “determine that a client’s interests are no longer served by maintaining a relationship with J.P. Morgan Private Bank.”
A spokesperson for JPMorgan did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the bank’s attorneys at Jones Day. The bank has previously said that Trump’s suit is meritless.
A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team said the disclosure of the letters are “a devastating concession that proves President Trump’s entire claim.”
The bank has “admitted to unlawfully and intentionally de-banking President Trump, his family, and his businesses, causing overwhelming financial harm,” the Trump legal team spokesperson said.
Trump has accused JPMorgan, the largest U.S. bank, of violating its own policies by singling him out to ride the “political tide.”
The account closure letters were filed on Friday as part of a motion JPMorgan is seeking to move Trump’s lawsuit from Miami federal court to New York.
“The overwhelming connections this dispute has to New York reinforce this result,” the bank said in its motion.
(Reporting by David Thomas, Editing by Franklin Paul)
