Capital One is asking a federal judge to permanently dismiss a lawsuit filed by Trump-affiliated businesses over the 2021 closure of hundreds of bank accounts, arguing in new court papers that the shutdowns followed a months-long anti-money-laundering review rather than retaliation for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
In a motion to dismiss filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Capital One's lawyers wrote that the bank's own filings and the Trump businesses' allegations "make clear that Capital One closed Plaintiffs' accounts for anti-money laundering ('AML') reasons." The bank said the decision followed "months of analysis and a careful review" by its financial-crimes team, which it described as staffed by employees with "decades of law enforcement experience."
The lawsuit alleges Capital One closed more than 300 accounts belonging to Trump-affiliated businesses as political retaliation following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Capital One disputes that characterization and says the closures were unrelated to politics.
This is not the first time the case has come before a judge. U.S. District Judge Roy Altman dismissed an earlier version of the lawsuit in March on similar grounds, ruling that a bank's stated reason for closing an account under that kind of open-ended contract clause generally cannot be second-guessed in court. Capital One is now asking Altman to dismiss the amended complaint with prejudice, meaning the plaintiffs would not get another chance to refile.
The amended complaint, filed in July, added a new claim not present in the original suit: that Capital One defrauded the plaintiffs by staying silent about its reasoning for closing the accounts. Capital One's motion pushes back on that theory as well.
As of Sunday, Altman had not ruled on the new motion. The case is one of several in recent years testing how far courts will let banks go in citing internal compliance decisions as a defense against claims of politically motivated de-banking.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/01/capital-one-trump-organ…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1xmXn7gLVg
https://www.genadmission.org/articles/don-henleys-still-relevant-dirty-laundry
