Capital One has dropped a financial-crimes bombshell in its courtroom war with the Trump Organization, claiming it closed hundreds of Trump-linked accounts after a monthslong anti-money-laundering review \u2014 not because of the family\u2019s politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bank revealed the rationale in a motion filed Friday<\/a> in Miami federal court, where it is fighting a lawsuit brought by the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, Eric Trump and several Trump-affiliated businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Capital One insists the records undercut the family\u2019s claim that it was swept up in a politically motivated \u201cdebanking\u201d campaign after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDocuments and Plaintiffs\u2019 own allegations make clear that Capital One closed Plaintiffs\u2019 accounts for anti-money laundering (\u2018AML\u2019) reasons,\u201d the bank\u2019s lawyers wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They said the closures followed \u201cmonths of analysis and a careful review by Capital One\u2019s AML team in accordance with bank policies and regulatory guidance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The allegation comes with a major caveat: Capital One has not accused the Trump Organization or its executives of illegally laundering money. The bank says its compliance team identified transaction patterns that are among the types of activity flagged in federal banking guidance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Trump entities say the explanation is a cover story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their latest complaint alleges Capital One \u201cimproperly and deliberately\u201d shut the accounts because the political climate in early 2021 made it expedient to distance the bank from Donald Trump. The dispute involves more than 300 accounts connected to an array of businesses, including hotels, golf courses, real-estate ventures, a winery and a bottled-water company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI can\u2019t tell you how hard it is to change more than 300 bank accounts \u2014 and for no reason whatsoever,\u201d Eric Trump previously told Fox News Digital, according to the New York Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese were hotels and golf courses, residential buildings and commercial buildings, retail outlets and skating rinks and parking garages,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was no political affiliation. The only common denominator was that they wore the Trump name.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Capital One called the political-retaliation allegations \u201cmisguided\u201d and \u201cbased on cherry-picked quotations unsupported by the full context\u201d of documents filed with the court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The bank also argues that its deposit agreement allowed either side to end the relationship at any time, for any reason or no reason at all. It says the Trump businesses received three months to move their money elsewhere, along with several extensions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Capital One further contends that federal banking-secrecy rules could have barred it from revealing sensitive details about its internal review. The Trump entities, meanwhile, claim they were never given a chance to explain the transactions that raised concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n U.S. District Judge Roy Altman has already dismissed earlier versions of the lawsuit while allowing the plaintiffs to try again. Capital One now wants the latest complaint tossed with prejudice, which would prevent another rewrite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The timing of the original account purge adds another twist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Capital One notified the Trump businesses of the planned closures on March 8, 2021. Less than two months earlier, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network hit the bank with a $390 million penalty<\/a> for what the agency called willful and negligent Bank Secrecy Act violations involving a separate check-cashing business unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Capital One admitted at the time that it had failed to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering program and had failed to file thousands of required reports. FinCEN said the violations occurred between at least 2008 and 2014; the agency also credited the bank for remediation and cooperation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Friday\u2019s disclosure marked the first time a bank had formally connected money-laundering concerns to Trump\u2019s family business. Again, the filing does not accuse the company of committing money laundering, and the underlying allegations remain disputed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The legal showdown lands amid Trump\u2019s broader crackdown on political debanking. In August 2025, the president signed an executive order<\/a> directing regulators to combat financial discrimination based on political or religious beliefs or lawful business activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump has also sued JPMorgan Chase and CEO Jamie Dimon over the closure of Trump-linked accounts, accusing the banking giant of political discrimination. JPMorgan has denied closing accounts for political or religious reasons and said it makes such decisions when clients create legal or regulatory risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Neither President Trump nor the Trump Organization had publicly responded to Capital One\u2019s latest filing as of Monday afternoon. The White House and Trump family business have maintained more broadly that politically motivated debanking threatens free speech and free enterprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Miami court has not ruled on the merits of the latest allegations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n