Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Thursday in Miami-Dade County state court seeking $5 billion in damages from JPMorgan and its CEO Jamie Dimon after the bank closed accounts tied to him and his businesses, the complaint said. (Ed. note: the complaint was not on the court’s public docket at the time of reporting.) According to the report, the suit alleges trade libel and breach of the covenant of good faith.
The complaint also accuses Dimon of violating Florida’s deceptive trade practices law, the filing states. A bank spokesperson said the lawsuit had no merit and that JPMorgan “does not close accounts for political or religious reasons.”
One claim in the case traces to a Jan. 17 social media post by Donald Trump defending the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack as the “correct” action and calling the 2020 election “rigged.” The post is available on the platform via the original social media post.
The suit follows months of debate about so-called debanking. In December, Dimon said, “we debank people who are Democrats. We debank people who are Republicans. We have debanked different religious folks.”
In August, the president signed an executive order directing regulators to probe politicized or unlawful debanking. Lawmakers and industry figures have framed many complaints as part of “Operation Chokepoint 2.0,” a term used online and in videos such as this video.
