JPMorgan Chase quietly admitted in a court filing this February that it shut down Donald Trump's bank accounts.
That admission just handed federal prosecutors exactly what they needed.
Now the prosecutor who built her career dismantling organized crime is coming for Wall Street with this investigation.
Jeanine Pirro Launches DOJ Debanking Investigation Into JPMorgan Bank of America and Wells Fargo
Debanking is what happens when a bank cuts off your accounts — no warning, no reason, no recourse — because it decided your politics made you a liability.
Last August, President Trump signed an executive order directing federal banking regulators to investigate whether financial institutions had engaged in politicized debanking and refer any violations to the attorney general.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency never made a single referral.
U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro didn't wait. Her prosecutors issued sweeping subpoenas – some dating back to last year – demanding JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo produce complete lists of debanked customers and explain exactly why each account was closed.
The probe is now examining whether those closures violated the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989, a statute built to prosecute bank fraud at the highest level.
The same law helped the Justice Department pursue Wall Street after the 2008 financial crisis.
Operation Choke Point Started Under Obama and Banks Never Really Stopped
The pattern runs back three administrations. Obama's Justice Department launched Operation Choke Point in 2013 – a coordinated pressure campaign that pushed banks to close accounts for gun dealers, payday lenders, and other legally operating businesses the administration wanted to squeeze.
Trump ended it in 2017. Biden's regulators brought the same playbook back under a new name, targeting crypto firms and conservative-aligned businesses through anti-money-laundering enforcement.
FDIC documents released under Trump confirmed it. The Senate Banking Committee chairman called the documents "disgusting and disheartening."
Melania Trump wrote in her memoir that she and Barron were both debanked after leaving the White House. The Trump Organization sued Capital One in 2025 after the bank closed more than 300 Trump-affiliated accounts in 2021. The pattern was never subtle — and the banks never stopped.
What Pirros Conservative Debanking Subpoenas Are Demanding From Wall Street
Pirro's team wants names. Every customer any of the three banks debanked. Every internal explanation for why each account was closed. Every memo, every email, every decision trail.
The OCC released a preliminary report in December finding early evidence of systematic debanking by the nine largest banks.
The industries targeted read like a conservative hit list – oil and gas, coal, firearms manufacturers, and private prisons.
Banks wrapped those closures in woke banking language and radical leftist environmental commitments. Pirro's prosecutors are now asking whether that language was cover for political discrimination.
Two of her prosecutors – Carlton Davis and Steven Vandervelden – previously ran the investigation into the Federal Reserve's building renovations that had Democrats screaming political persecution.
A federal judge quashed those subpoenas and Pirro shut that probe down in April. She is not shutting this one down.
The FIRREA Play Is Not an Accident
Pirro's team reached for FIRREA and the choice is deliberate. Banks have wide discretion over who they choose to do business with – civil rights law covers lending discrimination, but there is no clear statutory prohibition on simply closing an account.
FIRREA gives prosecutors a different angle. The law captures misrepresentations made to or involving federally insured financial institutions.
Banks told regulators their account closures were about risk and compliance — if internal records tell a different story, that gap is the case. JPMorgan's February court filing acknowledged the closures happened.
Their original public posture was that they close accounts based on legal and regulatory risk. Pirro's subpoenas now demand the documents that sit between those two statements.
Trump filed his $5 billion lawsuit against JPMorgan in January. His legal team called the February admission "a devastating concession."
Federal subpoenas now carry the same question into three of the country's largest financial institutions at once.
Obama used banks to punish legal businesses. Biden used them to punish crypto and conservatives. The banks went along with it every time — right up until the moment Trump returned to office.
Sources:
- Dylan Tokar and Gina Heeb, "Jeanine Pirro's Prosecutors Probe Big Banks for Alleged 'Debanking'," The Wall Street Journal, June 10, 2026.
- "JPMorgan Concedes It Closed Trump's Accounts After Jan. 6 Attack on the Capitol," CNBC, February 21, 2026.
- "Trump Organization, Eric Trump Sue Capital One for 'Unjustifiable' 2021 Debanking Based on 'Woke' Beliefs," Fox News, March 7, 2025.
- "Bank Executives Blow the Whistle on How Obama, Biden Admins Pressured Them to Debank Conservatives," Fox Business, August 19, 2025.
- "Scott Shines Light on Debanking of Americans, Pledges Solutions," U.S. Senate Banking Committee, February 5, 2025.
- "Public Privileges Demand Public Responsibility in Banking," The Heritage Foundation.
- "Trump Sues JPMorgan for $5 Billion, Alleging Politicized Debanking," Fox Business, January 22, 2026.
