Topline
Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, is investigating several major banks for allegedly “debanking” customers for political reasons, the Wall Street Journal reported—following up on one of President Donald Trump’s major complaints after his 2020 election loss.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro reportedly sent subpoenas to JPMorgan and Bank of America on Wednesday.
Getty Images
Key Facts
Investigators have reportedly sent subpoenas to several major banks, including Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase—one of the banks Trump is suing for closing his accounts following the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.
Trump previously signed an executive order last August instructing regulators to examine if banks violated the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, and the Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is conducting a probe of the allegations.
However, sources told the Journal that Pirro’s office was conducting its own probe and did not receive a referral from the Treasury Department office.
An official investigation has not been announced as of Wednesday afternoon, and Pirro’s office did not immediately return a request for comment from Forbes.
What Has the Treasury Department Found?
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued a preliminary report on the subject in December, finding that nine banks made “inappropriate distinctions among customers” between 2020 and 2023. These included several of the largest banks in the country, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank and Wells Fargo. The preliminary report said the investigation was ongoing, and the office was still reviewing “thousands” of complaints of alleged debanking of individuals based on “political or religious” values.
Tangent
Trump named Pirro, a former prosecutor in Westchester County, New York, and Fox News host, as U.S. attorney for D.C. last May. Since then, her office, as well as the Justice Department at large, has come under fire for pursuing investigations of Trump’s political enemies—including an aborted probe of six Democratic lawmakers who appeared in a video urging members of the military not to follow illegal orders. Her office also launched an investigation of former Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell over renovations to the central bank’s Washington, D.C., headquarters. Pirro dropped the probe into Powell in April, but the prosecutor has also suggested she could restart the investigation in the future.
Key Background
Trump has sued two banks for “debanking” him after the Jan. 6 riots—Capital One in March 2025, and JPMorgan Chase in January. In a statement, JPMorgan said the suit had “no merit” and insisted it did not close individuals’ accounts based on “political or religious reasons.” In a February legal filing, JPMorgan acknowledged closing some of Trump’s accounts a month after the Capitol riots. The bank had previously never confirmed if it had closed Trump’s accounts, citing banking privacy laws.