A former lawyer for then-President Donald Trump has become the subject of a new form of ‘lawfare’—de-banking.
John Eastman, previously an attorney for former President Donald Trump, informed the Daily Caller that he was de-banked twice within several months by two major financial institutions, Bank of America and USAA. His accounts were closed amid significant backlash for his advisory role to Trump during the 2020 election period.
Eastman stated that he had transferred the majority of his banking activities from Bank of America to USAA, a financial services company catering exclusively to military veterans and their families, citing his dissatisfaction with the former’s “wokeness.” It’s worth noting that both corporations are federally insured, and Bank of America received billions of dollars in taxpayer funds during the global financial crisis, the Caller added.
Bank of America notified Eastman in September 2023 of its intention to close his accounts, as evidenced by a letter obtained by the Daily Caller. Shortly thereafter, USAA informed Eastman in November that his two bank accounts with the company would also be closed, as indicated in a separate letter.
“And then two months later, we get a similar letter from USAA saying that they’ve decided that they’re going to close your account and they did like three weeks later,” Eastman told the Daily Caller. “And so that was where all of our automatic payments were coming out of, all our automatic deposits. So it was a real pain to shift everything. We had to get a new bank account opened and shift everything over.”
Eastman was notified of his USAA accounts being closed on Nov. 20, 2023. A few weeks prior, a California judge made a preliminary decision saying that Eastman was culpable of ethics violations in a state bar disciplinary case, CNN reported.
USAA claimed in its letter that it was “exercising its right to no longer do banking business” with Eastman per its “Depository Agreement.”
“We may close your account for any reason without advance notice. We may require you to give us a minimum of seven (7) calendar days advance written notice when you intend to close your account by withdrawing your funds,” a section of the agreement says, the Caller noted.
When Eastman sought clarification regarding the closures, he informed the Daily Caller that both banks cited their policy of not disclosing further details on the matter. An audio recording of Eastman’s call to Bank of America shared with the Daily Caller, confirms this.
“De-banking” refers to the practice of financial institutions denying financial services to individuals targeted by political activism, often disproportionately affecting conservatives.
“What these banks are doing is they’re saying you’re either high risk, or we don’t want to do business with you, or whatever it is. There’s no methodology behind this. There’s no kind of reason that matches traditional indicators or traditional metrics that a bank would use to calculate your liquidity, your credit score, whatever it is. They’re using these non-financial factors, and then making these decisions and just like closing people’s accounts,” Eric Bledsoe, an expert on de-banking for the Foundation for Government Accountability, told the outlet.
