Capital One told a federal court it shut Trump-affiliated bank accounts after its anti-money laundering team found “suspicious transactions.” Hassan wants to know what those transactions were, and whether anyone told law enforcement.
US Sen. Maggie Hassan (D) is asking Capital One to tell Congress what it found when it closed hundreds of bank accounts connected to President Donald Trump after they were flagged by an anti-money laundering review.
In a Sept. 2 letter to Capital One CEO Richard Fairbank, Hassan, the top Democrat on Congress’s Joint Economic Committee, asked the bank to turn over records showing what triggered its review of the accounts, what the review found, and whether the bank reported anything to law enforcement.
She gave Capital One until Sept. 23 to respond.
“The American people deserve to know the extent of President Trump’s ‘suspicious’ – and potentially illegal – financial activities, and Congress needs additional information to conduct thorough oversight of his actions,” Hassan wrote.
The request follows a July 31 court filing in which Capital One said it closed roughly 385 accounts held by the Trump Revocable Trust, Eric Trump and affiliated companies in 2021 after “months of analysis and a careful review” by Capital One’santi-money laundering unit. Federal law requires banks to watch for transactions that look like they could be attempting to hide the true source of illegally obtained money and to report suspicious activity to the government.
The Trump Organization and its affiliates sued the bank in March 2025, claiming Capital One dropped them for political reasons after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Capital One responded in federal court in Miami that documents turned over in the case show the review started with anti-money laundering concerns. According to Hassan’s letter, the bank wrote that “the transaction patterns identified by Capital One are among the types of activity flagged by federal banking guidance” on identifying “Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing ‘Red Flags.’”
A Trump Organization spokesperson told ABC News the bank was trying to “manufacture a justification to close the accounts.” The bank said it was complying with the law, not acting on political grounds. Capital One also stated it has not accused Trump of money laundering.
What the bank has not said, Hassan noted, is what the suspicious transactions actually were, or whether it referred them to investigators. Her letter asks for records on what prompted the review, what it found, why the bank closed the accounts, and any referrals to federal or state authorities.
Hassan’s letter ties the Capital One findings to a longer record. In 2015, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network fined the Trump Taj Mahal casino $10 million after the casino admitted to “willful and repeated violations of the Bank Secrecy Act,” including failing to report suspicious transactions.
The letter also points to World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s crypto company. Its stablecoin, a cryptocurrency designed to hold a steady value of one dollar, is now among the five largest in the world and is profiting from a promotional deal with the crypto exchange Binance, the letter says, citing Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal.
Binance and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, pleaded guilty in 2023 to breaking federal anti-money laundering law. The company agreed to pay more than $4 billion in penalties. Then-Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said at the time that Binance’s “willful failures allowed money to flow to terrorists, cybercriminals, and child abusers through its platform.” Trump pardoned Zhao in October 2025.
The letter also cites a New York Times report that World Liberty sold $100 million in tokens to an entity linked to Guren “Bobby” Zhou, a businessman under investigation for money laundering in Britain. He has reportedly been arrested but not charged.
“The troubling history described above and recent revelations from Capital One suggest a disturbing pattern in which President Trump has personally benefitted from potentially illegal activity while undermining accountability for criminals,” Hassan wrote.
It is the second time since June that Hassan has demanded records from Trump’s circle. She opened an investigation into Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager, over reports that he sought payments from Homeland Security contractors.
The Granite Post has also reported on the Trump family’s crypto earnings, which topped $800 million in the first half of 2025, on state Sen. Donovan Fenton’s criticism of those profits, and on Hassan and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s (D) broader fight with the Trump administration.
