Capital One cites AML review in Trump account closures

Capital One Financial said it closed more than 300 Trump-affiliated bank accounts in 2021 after months of review by anti-money-laundering specialists, pushing back against a lawsuit that claims the bank illegally cut off services for political reasons.

In a filing Friday in federal court in Florida, the bank asked a judge to dismiss the case brought by the Trump Organization and Eric Trump, President Donald Trump’s son. The company said the account closures were not driven by politics or ideology, but by concerns reviewed under its anti-money-laundering procedures.

“Documents and Plaintiffs’ own allegations make clear that Capital One closed Plaintiffs’ accounts for anti-money laundering (‘AML’) reasons,” the filing said. “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.”

Capital One has not accused the Trump Organization of money laundering. But the filing formally links the bank’s decision to anti-money-laundering concerns, a disclosure Reuters described as the first time a bank has formally tied such concerns to Trump’s family business.

The bank gave notice in March 2021 that it planned to close more than 300 accounts affiliated with the Trump Organization. The Trump Organization and Eric Trump sued in March 2025, alleging Capital One closed the accounts because of its “woke” beliefs and its desire to benefit from the political climate after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot by Trump supporters at the U.S. Capitol.

Capital One rejected that argument in Friday’s filing, calling the allegations of political pretext “misguided.” The bank said claims of “political discrimination” were “based on cherry-picked quotations unsupported by the full context” of documents submitted to the court.

“The transaction patterns identified by Capital One are among the types of activity flagged by federal banking guidance,” the filing said.

The bank also pushed back on the Trump Organization’s assertion that it should have been given a chance to explain any suspicious activity. “If any inquiry about the transactions or explanation of the account termination would reveal information subject to federal confidentiality obligations, federal law prohibits such disclosure,” Capital One said in the filing.

The court has already tossed out two complaints in the case, while allowing the plaintiffs to file amended versions. Capital One said the latest complaint, filed in July, “suffers from the same fundamental flaws as their prior two pleadings” and should be dismissed permanently.

The Trump Organization and Capital One did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The lawsuit comes as Trump and his administration have increased pressure on major banks over allegations that financial institutions have targeted conservatives. Since the start of Trump’s second term, his administration has echoed complaints from the political right about what critics call discriminatory debanking — the denial of services on religious or political grounds. Trump signed an executive order in August 2025 barring discriminatory debanking.

Trump also filed a lawsuit in January against JPMorgan Chase on similar grounds. During his first term, in 2019, Trump sued Capital One and Deutsche Bank in an attempt to stop them from turning over financial records to Congress as part of an investigation led by Democratic lawmakers.

Anti-money-laundering professionals at Deutsche Bank reportedly flagged a set of transactions, but executives ignored them; Deutsche Bank denied that report at the time.