President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to sue JPMorgan Chase over allegedly "debanking" him following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
"I'll be suing JPMorgan Chase over the next two weeks for incorrectly and inappropriately DEBANKING me after the January 6th Protest, a protest that turned out to be correct for those doing the protesting," Trump said in a social media post. "The Election was RIGGED!"
"While we won't get specific about a client, we don't close accounts because of political beliefs," said JPMorgan spokesperson Trish Wexler. "We appreciate that this Administration has moved to address political debanking and we support those efforts."
In August, Trump signed an executive order requiring banks to ensure they are not refusing financial services to clients based on religious or political beliefs, a practice known as "debanking."
Trump claimed without evidence in an August CNBC interview that he was personally discriminated against by banks. He said JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America refused to take his deposits following his first term in office.
At the time, JPMorgan said it does not close accounts for political reasons, while Bank of America said it doesn't comment on client matters. BofA also said it would welcome clearer rules from regulators on how to conduct its activities.
Trump and his family have a history of railing against financial institutions for allegedly refusing to work with them on the basis of their political orientation.
Last year, Donald Trump Jr. said his family had difficulty accessing big bank services â a situation that allegedly prompted the Trumps to enter the cryptocurrency industry.
"So, [my family] got into crypto, not because it was like, 'hey, this is the next cool thing,' we got into it out of necessity," Trump Jr. told CNBC in an interview last June.
JPMorgan shares are down about 5% over the past week, even after the bank on Tuesday topped expectations for its fourth-quarter earnings and revenue. The shares, and others in the banking sector, fell in response to Trump's demand to cap credit card rates at 10%, giving financial firms until Jan. 20 to comply.
Trump's legal threat against JPMorgan comes as the president, in the same Truth Social post, denied a Journal report on Wednesday that said the president had offered JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon the position of Federal Reserve chairman months ago during a meeting at the White House.
Dimon took the proposition as a joke, according to the Journal report.
In his post, Trump denied the report, underscoring his reservations about Dimon and JPMorgan.
"This statement is totally untrue, there was never such an offer," he wrote. "Why wouldn't The Wall Street Journal call me to ask whether or not such an offer was made? I would have very quickly told them, "NO," and that would have been the end of the story."
JPMorgan's Wexler said the "offer" reported by the Journal was a miscommunication. "I should have been more vigilant in correcting that word while attempting to dispute the WSJ's anonymous sources," she said.
The Journal did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside of normal business hours.
Current Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's term ends on May 15.
