Politics
REPORT: Major Financial Firms ‘Debanked’ Trump Under Pressure From Biden Admin
JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America “debunked” President Donald Trump in the weeks following the January 6 Capitol protests after pressure from the Biden-led Department of Justice, according to a bombshell report released Tuesday.
People with direct knowledge of the matter reported that the Biden Administration’s banking regulators and the Federal Reserve pressured the financial institutions to take action. The pressure resulted in tens of millions of dollars in Trump’s holdings being kicked off the JPMorgan banking platform, and later to a denial of access to Bank of America’s banking services.
The exact reason used for the suspensions has not been disclosed as of this report.
Senior officials at each of the banks — which are currently the largest financial firms in the United States in terms of assets — told the New York Post, however that the cause stemmed from the January 6 Capitol protests and threats from Biden’s bank regulators that banking the former president’s money could lead to significant penalties.
Specifically, the firms were warned that they could be found in violation of a rule that prohibits financial institutions from doing business with individuals and companies who present a “reputational risk.” Senior officials at the banks told The Post that Biden regulators with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the FDIC and the Federal Reserve often use the “nebulous nature of the edict” to expand upon debunking drug kingpins and criminals to target the administration’s political opponents going forward.
The firms were pressured to debank the then-former president, conservative leaders and anyone who participated in the January 6 Capitol protests.
“Think back to what it was like being Trump back in 2021; he was a hot potato after January 6 and the regulators made it clear to us that we shouldn’t do business with him,” one banking executive with direct knowledge of the situation told the New York Post. An executive at JPMorgan told the outlet that regulators “put the fear of God in you if you did business” with people like Trump.
This could mean anything from increased surveillance to various fines and other penalties. In order to avoid the risk of drawing the wrath of the Biden Administration, Bank of America and JPMorgan started to simply refuse business from individuals or organizations who could fall under the guidelines presented to the firms.
A spokesperson for Bank of America declined to comment, while JPMorgan denied the allegations before agreeing with President Trump’s calls for increased oversight to prevent future acts of debunking. “We don’t close accounts for political reasons, and we agree with President Trump that regulatory change is desperately needed. We commend the White House for addressing this issue and look forward to working with them to get this right,” a representative for the firm said.
Trump revealed that he was debanked while speaking with CNBC earlier in the day, explaining that he was denied services at both firms not long after the Capitol protests. “I had 100s of millions. I had many, many accounts loaded up with cash. I was loaded up with cash, and they told me, ‘I’m sorry, sir, we can’t have you. You have 20 days to get out.’ I said, ‘you’ve got to be kidding. I’ve been with you for 35, 40 years,'” the president said of JPMorgan.
In 2023, a damning report from the House Judiciary Committee revealed that Bank of America turned over transaction logs for anybody who was in the D.C. or Northern Virginia area between January 5 and 6 to the FBI. Records were turned over regardless of whether there was any evidence of the account holder having attended the Capitol protests or not.
An FBI whistleblower testified that Bank of America “date-mined its customer base” by compiling lists of customers who used their credit cards between January 5 and 7, 2021. This was done “with no directive from the FBI,” according to FBI whistleblowers Garret O’Boyle and George Hill.
A letter from House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) revealed that individuals who had recently purchased firearms were expedited to the top of the list for increased surveillance and potential debunking.
“This information appears to have had no individualized nexus to particularized criminal conduct, but was rather a data dump of BoA customers’ transactions over a three-day period,” the letter stated. “This information undoubtedly included private details about BoA customers who had nothing at all to do with the events of January 6. Even worse, BoA specifically provided information about Americans who exercised their Second Amendment right to purchase a firearm.”
President Donald Trump recently issued an executive order aimed at preventing financial firms from participating in debunking activities, while Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) has drafted legislation aimed at doing the same.
