Copyright ZeroHedge
While JPMorgan didn't debank Jeffrey Epstein despite a mountain of evidence he was engaged in sex-trafficking, the bank is now under fire from Florida officials over its cooperation with the Biden DOJ's anti-Trump investigation known as “Arctic Frost,” - providing sensitive banking information to Biden prosecutor Jack Smith. On Monday, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier notified JPMorgan Chase that his office has opened an inquiry into the bank’s actions involving Trump Media & Technology Group, the Florida-based operator of Truth Social. The Daily Wire first reported the development. In a letter sent to JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon, Uthmeier said the state has “grave concerns” about the bank’s conduct and its handling of sensitive customer information. The move follows disclosures from the Senate Judiciary Committee indicating that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Arctic Frost probe issued subpoenas to hundreds of Republican individuals and entities. “I write to express grave concerns about the explosive revelations regarding the Biden Administration’s pursuit of its political adversaries, and [JPMorgan Chase’s] ensuing actions in the shadow of this operation, codenamed ‘Arctic Frost,’” Uthmeier said in the letter. According to Uthmeier, the Biden Justice Department subpoenaed JPMorgan on March 28, 2023, requesting any and all records involving Trump Media - including documents predating the company’s existence. The letter alleges the administration sought sensitive banking information from Florida-based individuals and entities, including Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. Uthmeier told The Daily Wire he suspects JPMorgan provided the Justice Department with information connected to what he described as “malicious prosecutions,” and also questioned whether the bank had asked Trump Media for information unrelated to normal business practices. JPMorgan told shareholders last week it was responding to requests from “government authorities and other external parties regarding, among other things, the firm’s policies and processes and the provision of services to customers and potential customers,” language Uthmeier views as an apparent reference to debanking. Former President Donald Trump signed an executive order in August directing regulators to examine whether financial institutions have engaged in “politicized or unlawful debanking.” Uthmeier’s letter says that after the Justice Department’s actions began, JPMorgan pressed Trump Media for details on years-old transactions, claiming the requests were part of due diligence. The attorney general said those inquiries “appear to be pretextual and unrelated to their stated purpose.” The attorney general also noted that immediately after Trump Media completed a merger in March 2024, JPMorgan notified the company that its accounts were being closed. Uthmeier said the timing raises “obvious, troubling questions.” “This activity may implicate numerous Florida criminal and civil anti-fraud laws and de-banking prohibitions, as well as a breach of the basic, fundamental duties owed to your banking customers,” he wrote. The attorney general ordered the Office of Statewide Prosecution and Enforcement Division to begin investigating and directed JPMorgan to initiate a litigation hold to preserve documents. Uthmeier told The Daily Wire he views the matter as part of a broader pattern. “We think it’s wrong that companies were just coughing things up to the Department of Justice when there was not real probable cause, and we think it’s wrong that companies are debanked, especially at such important times,” he said. “We protect Florida-based companies like Trump Media Group. We protect our consumers and where there’s discriminatory banking practices taking place, especially those with intent to harm, we will fight back and hold wrongdoers accountable.” He also suggested the matter may intersect with Smith’s January 6 investigation. Truth Social launched in February 2022, more than a year after the events of January 6, 2021. “Any notion that this company was somehow involved in whatever criminal activity that the Department of Justice alleged, wrongfully alleged, surrounded the J6 events,” he said. “Clearly, Truth Social would not have been a part of that.” “It shows the full scope of the weaponization and the efforts to go after anybody related to Trump or the conservative cause.” Devin Nunes, CEO of Trump Media and a former congressman, raised similar concerns on Fox News on Sunday. “One would think that Trump Media would not have been caught up into Arctic Frost at all, largely because…we just became a public company in 2024 and we were nowhere around in 2021,” he said. “So why would Trump Media be subpoenaed at that time during this investigation? It doesn’t make any sense.” Nunes also questioned the bank’s cooperation. “Should [JPMorgan Chase] have complied with this, knowing that we weren’t around? They had to know that our company wasn’t around on January 6. We were never notified…did this break laws in the state of Florida?” He argued the bank “inexplicably” closed Trump Media’s accounts “right at the time we were going public,” and “right at the height of the campaign,” calling the move political and increasingly suspicious in light of the Arctic Frost revelations. Amazing...
