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MIAMI (CN) — Several companies affiliated with President Donald Trump, along with the president’s son Eric Trump, sued Capital One in Miami on Friday, claiming the bank bowed to political and social pressure when it closed more than 300 Trump-linked accounts in 2021.
The complaint — filed by the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, Eric Trump and three Florida-based and Trump-associated companies — claims Capital One wrongfully terminated the accounts without any warning or recourse.
No explanation was given for the account closures, the Trump groups say in their suit. Nonetheless, they accuse Capital One of “debanking” them — a term for the purported practice of denying financial services for discriminatory and ideological reasons.
“Plaintiffs have reason to believe that Capital One’s unilateral decision came about as a result of political and social motivations and Capital One’s unsubstantiated, ‘woke’ beliefs that it needed to distance itself from President Trump and his conservative political views,” the Trump plaintiffs say in their 22-page lawsuit. “In essence, Capital One ‘debanked’ plaintiffs’ accounts because Capital One believed that the political tide at the moment favored doing so.”
Accusing Capital One of “unlawful, deceptive and reckless conduct,” the Trump businesses say that they suffered financial harm and losses due to what they call an unprovoked and sudden interruption to banking services. They say the decision had a devastating impact on their ability to transact and access money.
Despite suing in the Gator State, the Trump plaintiffs cite a range of laws from other states that they claim Capitol One violated — including North Carolina’s Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act, the Nebraska Consumer Protection Act, New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act and Minnesota’s Consumer Fraud Act.
The suit also references a Florida law signed by Governor Ron Desantis last year, which prohibits financial institutions from denying or canceling services on the basis of political opinions, speech or affiliations.
“By filing this lawsuit, we seek to hold Capital One accountable for the millions of dollars in damages they caused, not just to our company, but to the many dozens of properties, hundreds of tenants and thousands of Trump Organization employees who relied on these accounts for their livelihoods,” Eric Trump said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.
In an emailed statement to Courthouse News, a spokesperson for Capital One denied claims of debanking.
“Capital One has not and does not close customer accounts for political reasons," that spokesperson said.
In their suit, the plaintiffs say they were customers of Capital One for decades before the bank notified them in March 2021 that hundreds of accounts that they controlled, or for which they were beneficiaries, would be closed in June of that year. The Trump plaintiffs concede that some account closures were delayed but did not say for how long.
Those closures, they say, were “part of a growing trend by financial institutions in the United States of America to cut off a consumer’s access to banking services if their political views contradict with those of the financial institution.”
Republican concerns over so-called debanking date back “Operation Choke Point.” That Obama-era initiative by the Justice Department discouraged banks from working with lawful but “high-risk” businesses and attracted controversy before it was officially ended in 2017.
Like deplatforming — the term for intentionally removing a person from a social-media platform like Facebook or Twitter — debanking speaks to modern conservative anxieties that corporations are canceling or otherwise silencing them. Last month, President Trump publicly accused the CEOs of Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase of refusing to provide banking services to some conservatives. Both banks reportedly denied refusing services for political reasons.
Senator Tim Scott, a Republican from South Carolina and chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, on Thursday released new legislation aimed at ending debanking nationwide. The Financial Integrity and Regulation Management Act would prohibit federal regulators from using reputational risk to determine the safety and soundness of financial institutions and would bar federal banking agencies from making new rules that rely on reputational risk.
In their Friday suit, the Trump plaintiffs asked a Miami-Dade circuit court to grant declaratory relief finding that Capital One improperly terminated their accounts, as well as to award court fees and costs. Representing them is attorney Alejandro Brito with the Coral Gables, Florida-based firm Brito PLLC.
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