By Kenrick Cai
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 1 (Reuters) – Capital One Monetary hit again on Friday in opposition to a lawsuit over its resolution to shut the Trump Organization’s financial institution accounts years in the past, stating that it did so after a assessment by anti-money laundering consultants.
The disclosure marks the primary time a financial institution has formally tied cash laundering considerations to U.S. President Donald Trump’s household enterprise. Capital One is searching for to dismiss the case by casting doubt on claims of illegally debanking — or denying providers on spiritual or political grounds — the Trump Group.
The Trump Group and Capital One didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Capital One has by no means accused the Trump Group of unlawful cash laundering. However Friday’s submitting argues that “paperwork and Plaintiffs’ personal allegations clarify that Capital One closed Plaintiffs’ accounts for anti-money laundering (“AML”) causes. The closures have been the results of months of study and a cautious assessment by Capital One’s AML workforce in accordance with financial institution insurance policies and regulatory steerage.”
Capital One gave discover of its plans to shut greater than 300 Trump-affiliated financial institution accounts in March 2021. The Trump Group and Eric Trump, the president’s son, filed a lawsuit in March 2025 in a Florida federal court docket, alleging the accounts have been closed due to Capital One’s “woke” beliefs and its want to learn from the political temper after the January 6, 2021 riot on the U.S. Capitol.
‘MISGUIDED’ ALLEGATIONS: CAPITAL ONE
The federal court docket in Miami has tossed two complaints within the Capital One case, however gave the plaintiffs alternatives every time to submit an amended grievance. Capital One mentioned that the newest model, filed in July, “suffers from the identical elementary flaws as their prior two pleadings.”
Capital One mentioned in Friday’s submitting that the Trump Group’s allegations of political pretext have been “misguided” and “based mostly on cherry-picked quotations unsupported by the complete context” of paperwork submitted to the court docket.
“The transaction patterns recognized by Capital One are among the many sorts of exercise flagged by federal banking steerage,” the submitting mentioned.
Because the begin of Trump’s second time period, his administration has put stress on some massive banks, echoing conservative complaints that the establishments are intentionally focusing on the political proper.
Trump signed an government order in August 2025 barring discriminatory debanking. In January, Trump filed a go well with in opposition to JPMorgan Chase on the identical grounds, underscoring the fraught coverage atmosphere Wall Road is navigating through the president’s second time period.
In 2019, throughout his first time period, Trump sued Capital One and Deutsche Financial institution in an try to forestall them from sharing monetary information with Congress as a part of a probe led by Democratic lawmakers. Anti-money laundering professionals at Deutsche Financial institution reportedly flagged a set of transactions, however executives ignored them; Deutsche Financial institution denied the report on the time.
(Reporting by Kenrick Cai; Modifying by Sergio Non and Rod Nickel)
