Capital One, one of the largest banks in the United States, said on Friday that it had closed the Trump Organization's bank accounts after months of analysis and review by anti-money laundering experts, officially linking its decision for the first time to similar concerns surrounding US President Donald Trump's family business, reports "Reuters".
The bank asked a federal court in Florida to dismiss the lawsuit filed by the Trump Organization and Eric Trump in March 2025. The plaintiffs claim that the accounts were closed because of "liberal" Capital One's beliefs and its attempt to capitalize on political sentiment following the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Capital One has never accused the Trump Organization of illegal money laundering. However, in a court filing, the bank states: "The documents and plaintiffs' own statements clearly show that Capital One closed plaintiffs' accounts for anti-money laundering ("AML") reasons. The closures are the result of months of analysis and careful review by Capital One's anti-money laundering team in accordance with bank policies and regulatory guidelines.".
"The transaction patterns identified by Capital One are among the types of activity flagged by federal banking guidelines," the document also says.
In March 2021, the bank announced plans to close more than 300 accounts associated with Trump. A federal court in Miami has already dismissed two versions of the lawsuit but allowed the plaintiffs to file amended complaints. Capital One said the latest, filed in July, “suffers from the same fundamental flaws as its previous two petitions.”
The bank called the allegations of political motive “misguided” and “based on selected quotes unsupported by the full context” of the documents submitted.
The Trump Organization and Eric Trump did not respond to requests for comment.
In August 2025, the president signed an executive order against discriminatory debanking after conservatives accused financial institutions of intentionally limiting services to the political right. In January, Trump sued JPMorgan Chase on similar grounds.
Back in 2019, during his first term, Trump sued Capital One and Deutsche Bank, trying to block the release of financial documents to Congress as part of an investigation by Democratic lawmakers. At the time, it was reported that anti-money laundering specialists at Deutsche Bank had flagged certain transactions but that executives had ignored them. The bank denied the information.