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Capital One Financial has defended its decision to close more than 300 bank accounts linked to the Trump Organisation, telling a federal court that it followed an extensive anti-money laundering (AML) review rather than any political motivation.
The filing marks the first time a financial institution has formally linked anti-money laundering concerns to US President Donald Trump’s family business in court, although the bank stressed that it has not accused the Trump Organisation of illegal money laundering.
Capital One has sought to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Trump Organisation and Eric Trump, arguing that the account closures were based on internal compliance reviews and federal banking guidance. Capital One Financial is one of the largest consumer banks in the US.
CAPITAL ONE CITES MONTHS OF AML REVIEW
According to the court filing, Capital One said the decision to close the accounts followed months of analysis by its anti-money laundering specialists.
“Documents and Plaintiffs’ own allegations make clear that Capital One closed Plaintiffs’ accounts for anti-money laundering (AML) reasons. The closures were the result of months of analysis and a careful review by Capital One’s AML team in accordance with bank policies and regulatory guidance,” the bank said in the filing.
Capital One notified the Trump Organisation in March 2021 that it intended to close more than 300 Trump-affiliated bank accounts.
However, the Trump Organisation and Eric Trump, the US President’s son, filed a lawsuit in March 2025 in federal court in Florida, alleging the accounts were shut because of Capital One’s “woke” beliefs and an effort to align itself with the political climate following the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
BANK CALLS TRUMP ORGANISATION’S CLAIMS ‘MISGUIDED’
Capital One rejected those allegations, arguing that the lawsuit continues to rely on selective interpretations of documents rather than the full context. The bank said the latest amended complaint, filed in July after two previous versions were dismissed by a federal court in Miami, “suffers from the same fundamental flaws as their prior two pleadings”.
Capital One further described the allegations of political bias as “misguided” and “based on cherry-picked quotations unsupported by the full context” of documents presented before the court.
“The transaction patterns identified by Capital One are among the types of activity flagged by federal banking guidance,” the filing said. The court has previously dismissed two versions of the lawsuit but allowed the plaintiffs to amend and refile their complaint.
LEGAL BATTLE CENTRES ON ‘DEBANKING’ CLAIMS
This lands as claims of politically motivated “debanking” have become a major issue during Trump’s second term in office. The Trump administration has increased pressure on major US banks amid conservative allegations that financial institutions have discriminated against right-leaning individuals and organisations by denying them banking services.
In August 2025, Trump signed an executive order prohibiting discriminatory debanking. Earlier this year, he also filed a separate lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase, making similar allegations that the bank unfairly denied services based on political considerations.
The latest court fight adds to a series of legal disputes between Trump and major financial institutions.
In 2019, during his first term as US President, Trump sued Capital One and Deutsche Bank in an effort to stop them from providing his financial records to Congress during an investigation led by Democratic lawmakers.
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