By Tom Hals
WILMINGTON, DEL., Feb 19 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump improperly included Jamie Dimon as a defendant in his $5 billion debanking lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase as a way to get the case into state court, the bank and its CEO said in a Thursday court filing.
Trump’s claim that Dimon engaged in unfair trade practices does not apply to bank officers who are directly regulated by federal banking agencies, according to the court filing.
Trump filed the lawsuit in his personal capacity in a Miami-Dade County court in January. The lawsuit sought $5 billion in damages and also alleged that JPMorgan engaged in trade libel by putting him on a banking “blacklist” after it closed some of his accounts in 2021, shortly after his first term ended.
JPMorgan and Dimon denied the allegations in the court filing and said they were unaware of a blacklist.
The filing was made in federal district court in Miami, where the defendants were seeking to move the case, before seeking a transfer to federal court in Manhattan. Corporate defendants often prefer to have cases proceed in federal court.
A statement from a spokesman for Trump’s legal team said the bank and Dimon debanked and blacklisted Trump, his family and their businesses. “The defendants committed these tortious acts only because of the president’s America First policies, which have saved our nation. President Trump is standing up for all those wrongly debanked by JPMorgan Chase and their cohorts, and will see this case to a just, and proper conclusion.”
The lawsuit against JPMorgan is one of at least six that Trump has brought in his personal capacity since returning to the presidency.
(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
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