Capital One closed more than 300 Trump Organisation accounts in 2021 after an anti-money-laundering review, a court filing dated Saturday, 1 August 2026 revealed as the bank sought dismissal of a lawsuit.
The bank’s disclosure, as reported by Reuters, marked the first time a lender had formally tied anti-money-laundering concerns to the ending of services for Donald Trump’s family business.
Capital One did not accuse the Trump Organisation of money laundering.
The closures followed a months-long internal review by a specialist team at the bank, which examined activity across the accounts. Capital One said the decision rested on its own internal policy and on regulatory guidance rather than on any political consideration.
Why Capital One closed the Trump Organisation accounts
Anti-money-laundering rules require banks to monitor customer activity for signs of illicit funds and to exit relationships they judge too risky. A specialist unit at Capital One conducted that assessment over several months in 2021 before the bank moved to end the relationship.
Capital One notified the Trump Organisation in March 2021 that it planned to close the accounts.
The filing set out that sequence to show the decision followed an established compliance process, with the company informed months before the accounts were shut.
What the Trump Organisation lawsuit against Capital One claims
The Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust and Eric Trump filed the underlying lawsuit in a Florida state court in March 2025. They alleged that the bank had illegally debanked the company for political reasons after the assault on the Capitol on Wednesday, 6 January 2021.
Debanking describes a bank ending a customer relationship outright rather than declining a single transaction, leaving the account holder to find another institution.
The Trump Organisation argued that the timing, weeks after the Capitol assault, pointed to a political motive and not a compliance one.
Capital One pushed back on the claim that politics drove the decision, and its filing dismissed the Trump Organization’s reading of internal communications, which the bank said had been selectively presented.
The filing described those allegations of political pretext as:
“misguided” and “based on cherry-picked quotations unsupported by the full context”
What the Capital One filing means for the case
A motion to dismiss asks a judge to throw out a case before trial on the grounds that the claims fail as a matter of law, even if the facts alleged are accepted. Capital One made that request in the filing lodged on Saturday, 1 August 2026.
The Florida court must now decide whether the case proceeds to discovery or ends at this stage.
Should the judge refuse the dismissal, the Trump Organisation would be able to test the bank’s account of the review in open court.
