“The transaction patterns identified by Capital One are among the types of activity flagged by federal banking guidance,” Capital One said.
Capital One has asked a federal judge to dismiss a Trump Organization lawsuit over the closure of hundreds of bank accounts in 2021, arguing that the decision was made as part of a months-long anti-money-laundering review rather than in response to the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, as the Trump family continues to claim.
According to National Public Radio, Capital One filed a motion to dismiss on Friday in a Florida-based court. In the filing, lawyers for the bank said that its filings, taken alongside the Trumps’ allegations, should “make clear that Capital One closed Plaintiffs’ accounts for anti-money laundering (‘AML’) reasons.”
Attorneys for Capital One said that the bank terminated certain Trump-affiliated accounts following “months of analysis and a careful review” conducted by its financial-crimes team. The financial-crimes team, Capital One emphasized, is staffed by employees with “decades of law enforcement experience.”
NPR notes that some recent filings indicate that the Trump Organization was, however, given little to no time to address the allegations before the accounts were either frozen or shuttered. It is unclear what, if any, steps the president’s business took to address the bank’s claims prior to filing suit.
The Trump Organization, for its part, says that Capital One wanted to publicly distance itself from the president after January 6, inventing the anti-money-laundering rationale as an excuse.
Capital One, though, says that this defense rests on “cherry-picked quotations unsupported by the full context” of the bank’s internal records; it also argues that nothing detailed in the Trumps’ lawsuit runs counter to this explanation.
Instead, Capital One submitted, the reasoning behind the account closures was kept temporary confidential: the bank “never publicized the termination decision nor its confidential internal process giving rise to the closure.” Capital One also claims that the terminations weren’t as immediate as Trump has let on, with the bank allegedly giving the president’s business months to move its money elsewhere.
“The transaction patterns identified by Capital One are among the types of activity flagged by federal banking guidance,” Capital One said.
Reuters reports that, since the start of Trump’s second term, his administration has put increasing pressure on large banks, echoing complaints that certain financial institutions are targeting conservatives. In August 2025, for instance, the president signed an executive order barring discriminatory banking; earlier this year, he filed a separate lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase on the same grounds.
Sources
Capital One says it closed Trump Organization’s accounts after anti-money laundering probe
Capital One says it closed Trump Organization’s accounts after anti-money laundering probe
Capital One says it closed Trump Organization accounts over money-laundering concerns
Capital One says money-laundering investigation led to closure of Trump’s accounts
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