Capital One is pushing back against the Trump Organization’s claims that it was “debanked” for political reasons, saying the real reason hundreds of its accounts were closed had nothing to do with ideology.
Instead, the banking giant said the decision stemmed from money laundering patterns identified during a lengthy internal review by its anti-money laundering team.
In a new court filing Friday, Capital One stopped short of accusing the Trump Organization of money laundering. But it says the evidence makes clear why the accounts were closed.
“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 told the court, according to The Guardian.
Capital One notified the Trump Organization in March 2021 that it would shut down more than 300 accounts affiliated with the company.
Four years later, the Trump Organization and Eric Trump sued the bank, claiming the accounts were terminated because Capital One wanted to align itself with the political climate following the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and because of what they described as the bank’s “woke” ideology.
Capital One says that’s simply not true.
In Friday’s filing, the bank also said the transaction patterns it identified were consistent with activity that federal banking regulators instruct financial institutions to examine as part of their anti-money laundering responsibilities.
The dispute comes as Trump has made so-called “debanking” a major political issue during his second term, accusing large financial institutions of discriminating against conservatives.
Last year, Trump signed an executive order aimed at preventing banks from denying financial services based on political or religious viewpoints.
Trump has also taken his fight directly to Wall Street.
Earlier this year, he sued JPMorgan Chase, making similar claims that the bank improperly denied services based on politics. During his first term, Trump also sued Capital One and Deutsche Bank in an unsuccessful attempt to block the release of his financial records to congressional investigators.
Deutsche Bank has faced its own scrutiny over its relationship with Trump. In previous years, reports claimed some of the bank’s anti-money laundering specialists flagged suspicious transactions involving Trump-related accounts.
Now Capital One says its decision was driven by standard anti-money laundering procedures and months of internal review.
