Capital One Financial has, for the first time, publicly linked its decision to close bank accounts belonging to the Trump Organisation to concerns about anti-money laundering rules.
The disclosure was made in a court filing on Friday and is significant because it is the first time a bank has publicly connected such concerns to a business owned by Donald Trump.
Capital One has not accused the Trump Organisation of illegally laundering money. However, the bank has clearly said that concerns related to anti-money laundering rules played a role in its decision to close the accounts.
The bank made the statement while asking a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Trump Organisation. The lawsuit claims Capital One illegally “debanked” it, meaning the bank cut off its financial services for political or religious reasons.
Why did Capital One close the accounts?
Capital One first told the Trump Organisation in March 2021 that it planned to close more than 300 bank accounts linked to the business. The bank has now explained its position in much clearer terms.
In its latest court filing, the bank said, “documents and Plaintiffs’ own allegations make clear that Capital One closed Plaintiffs’ accounts for anti-money laundering (“AML”) reasons,” according to Reuters.
In other words, Capital One says its anti-money laundering team reviewed the accounts and transactions before the bank decided to shut them down.
The bank also pointed to the type of transactions it had identified. “The transaction patterns identified by Capital One are among the types of activity flagged by federal banking guidance.”
Trump Organisation says it was politically targeted
The Trump Organisation and Donald Trump’s son, Eric Trump, took the matter to court in March 2025. They filed the lawsuit in a federal court in Florida, accusing Capital One of illegally cutting off their banking services.
According to the complaint filed, the bank’s decision was driven by “woke” beliefs. The company also argues that the bank wanted to benefit from the political climate after the January 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol.
In response, the bank firmly rejected the explanation and described the claims as “misguided.” It also said the claims were based on “cherry-picked quotations unsupported by the full context” of the documents submitted to the court.
Court has already rejected two complaints
The case has already faced setbacks for the Trump Organisation.
A federal court in Miami has dismissed complaints in the case twice. However, the court has allowed the plaintiffs to make changes and file amended versions of their lawsuit.
The Trump Organisation filed its latest version in July. Capital One argued in its latest filing that the new complaint “suffers from the same fundamental flaws as their prior two pleadings.”
The bank is now asking the court to dismiss the case.
Debanking has become a political issue for Trump
The dispute comes at a time when Donald Trump and his administration have stepped up pressure on some of America’s biggest banks.
Trump and other conservatives have repeatedly accused large financial institutions of targeting people and businesses because of their political views.
The issue has become known as “debanking”, where a bank ends or restricts financial services for a customer.
In August 2025, Trump signed an executive order aimed at stopping discriminatory debanking practices. In January, Trump also filed a separate lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase over similar allegations.
This is not the first legal fight between Trump and Capital One. During his first term as president, in 2019, Trump sued both Capital One and Deutsche Bank. At the time, he was trying to stop the banks from handing over his financial records to Congress as part of an investigation led by Democratic lawmakers.