By Jose E. Navarro | The Navarro Report
MIAMI — Capital One filed a motion Aug. 1 in federal court in Florida asking a judge to permanently dismiss the Trump Organization’s lawsuit over the 2021 closure of more than 300 accounts, arguing the shutdowns followed a months-long anti-money-laundering review rather than political retaliation tied to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, as the plaintiffs have claimed.
The case has already been through one round in court. U.S. District Judge Roy Altman, a Trump appointee, dismissed an earlier version of the suit in March, calling the complaint deficient while finding the Trump Organization had alleged just enough to proceed on a political-motivation theory. Altman gave the plaintiffs until July 2 to refile with more specific allegations.
Friday’s filing marks a notable shift in posture: it is the first time a bank has formally tied anti-money-laundering findings to the Trump family business in litigation, a more pointed defense than the generic denials of any political litmus test that banks have offered in the past.
The dispute sits inside a broader campaign the Trump administration has waged against what it calls politically motivated debanking. An August 2025 executive order directed regulators to investigate the practice, and Trump has separately sued JPMorgan Chase for $5 billion on similar grounds. He confronted Bank of America chief executive Brian Moynihan publicly over the issue during a virtual appearance at Davos in January 2026.
For financial institutions, the stakes extend well past this one case. A ruling on the merits could shape how banks document and defend account-closure decisions industrywide, in disputes that have also touched gun dealers, cryptocurrency firms and conservative media outlets alleging similar treatment.
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