Jamie Dimon said on Monday that Donald Trump’s $5 billion lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase over the closure of his bank accounts “has no merit”, while acknowledging the president had “the right to be angry” about the episode.

Speaking to CNBC on the sidelines of a JPMorgan conference in Miami, Dimon said: “The case has no merit,” but added: “They have the right to be angry. I’d be angry, too. Like, why is a bank allowed to do that?” Trump filed the lawsuit in January in Miami-Dade County court, alleging that JPMorgan shut down his accounts for political reasons following the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

In recent court filings, JPMorgan acknowledged that it closed dozens of accounts linked to Trump and some of his businesses in February 2021, weeks after the Capitol riot. The president has accused the bank of acting on “woke” beliefs and placing him on a blacklist shared with other lenders.

Dimon told CNBC that banks are often compelled to sever ties with customers because of regulatory and legal pressures rather than political considerations. “We debank people because it causes legal, regulatory risk for us,” he said, adding that it is “much easier for a bank to say, ‘I’m not taking the risk, let them go bank elsewhere.’”

He said lenders can be constrained in explaining such decisions to clients and argued that reputational and compliance concerns can expose banks to supervisory action. “There are a lot of misunderstandings here,” Dimon said. “Hopefully the law will change, and hopefully it’ll get sorted out.”

Trump’s suit against JPMorgan forms part of a broader legal campaign since returning to office last year. He or his companies have launched actions against other institutions, including Capital One over similar debanking claims, as well as media organisations and the Internal Revenue Service in separate disputes.

The case places Dimon, one of Wall Street’s most prominent executives, in a delicate position as the financial industry begins to benefit from a deregulatory shift under Trump-appointed officials. Dimon declined to comment on the likely timeline but indicated the litigation could take years to resolve.

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