JPMorgan Chief Teases Possible Presidential Run With Strong Wall Street Support, yet Questions About Epstein Connection Mount

‘He is pro-business and pro-free enterprise, but also supportive of well-designed social programs and rational tax policies that can help the less fortunate,’ a Pershing Square executive, Bill Ackman, says.

AP/Jacquelyn Martin, file
The JPMorgan Chase CEO, Jamie Dimon, testifies at a Senate Banking Committee annual Wall Street oversight hearing, September 22, 2022. AP/Jacquelyn Martin, file

Between a hint dropped in an interview and a relentlessly positive tweet from a Pershing Square executive, Bill Ackman, it looks like some on Wall Street may be trying to recruit JPMorgan’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, to run for president, even as questions percolate about his connection to sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Mr. Dimon, who heads the country’s biggest bank, hinted that he may be interested in a presidential run. He said: “I love my country, and maybe one day I’ll serve my country in one capacity or another.”

At the same time, Mr. Ackman, an influential financier who played a key role in recruiting Mayor Bloomberg to run for president in 2020, posted a lengthy tweet singing praises of Mr. Dimon. 

“Jamie Dimon is one of the world’s most respected business leaders. Politically he is a centrist,” Mr. Ackman said. “He is pro-business and pro-free enterprise, but also supportive of well-designed social programs and rational tax policies that can help the less fortunate.”

Mr. Ackman went on, claiming of Dimon that he “has already been crowned the world’s best banker,” would easily defeat President Biden in a primary and President Trump in a general election, and that he would “easily raise billions of dollars from Democrats and Republicans to fund his campaign.”

Mr. Ackman’s judgment in who might prove to be a winning candidate for president has been shaky in the past, with Mr. Bloomberg’s campaign proving to be a $900 million flop, winning only the American Samoa primary.

Still, from the noise around Mr. Dimon, and Mr. Ackman’s call on people to pressure his into running, there’s fair reason to believe others are working behind the scenes to get Mr. Dimon to throw his hat in the ring in the Democratic primary.

At the same time, Mr. Dimon is facing scrutiny over a potential connection to Epstein, who did extensive business with JPMorgan before his fall.

The bank continued to do business with Epstein until 2013, when it severed ties. This was still years after the arrests of Epstein in 2006 and 2008 for soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution.

In recent filings, a former executive at JPMorgan Chase, Jes Staley, claimed that Mr. Dimon had communicated with others at the bank about whether to do business with Epstein. JPMorgan and Mr. Dimon deny these allegations.

“There is no evidence that any such communications ever occurred — nothing in the voluminous number of documents reviewed and nothing in the nearly dozen depositions taken, including that of our own CEO,” a JPMorgan spokeswoman said. “The one person who claims this to be true is currently accused of horrific acts and dishonesty.”


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