The U.S. Justice Department has sent wide-ranging subpoenas to several of the largest U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, seeking information about whether they improperly closed customer accounts for political reasons, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

The subpoenas were issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, headed by Jeanine Pirro, and escalate President Donald Trump’s campaign to uncover proof that banks discriminated against conservatives and politically controversial industries, including his own family, according to the Journal. Wells Fargo & Co. is also among the recipients, the people said.

Some of the subpoenas were sent last year and ask the banks to provide lists of customers who were allegedly debanked, along with information about why their accounts were closed, the WSJ said. 

Trump said last year that he was cut off from bank accounts and denied new ones at JPMorgan and Bank of America after his first administration ended in the violent riot at the U.S. Capitol. In August, he signed an executive order directing banking regulators to investigate whether financial institutions had engaged in “politicized or unlawful debanking” and to take action, including financial penalties.

Until now, that review has primarily been the mandate of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Treasury Department bureau that supervises the largest U.S. banks. The executive order instructed regulators to refer matters to the attorney general as necessary, but the OCC had not made referrals to the Justice Department. Pirro’s office opened its investigations on its own, according to the newspaper. 

The OCC and the U.S. attorney’s office are coordinating their inquiries. The Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. have also taken steps against the practice, Bloomberg reported.

In December, the OCC released a preliminary report saying it had found early evidence of debanking by the nine largest U.S. banks. The agency said affected industries included oil and gas, coal, firearms manufacturers, and adult entertainment, and it pointed to the banks’ own public reports on environmental and social commitments, including efforts to fight climate change and racial inequality.

A central challenge for prosecutors and regulators is identifying what laws banks violated by declining to serve certain industries or customers they deemed too risky under anti-money-laundering rules. Civil rights laws bar discrimination in lending, but banks otherwise have wide discretion over whom they serve, the Journal noted. 

Pirro’s office is examining whether the banks’ conduct may have the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989, a broad law traditionally used to prosecute bank-related fraud, some of the people told the news outlet. The Justice Department used the statute after the 2008 financial crisis in cases alleging banks misrepresented the quality of mortgage-backed securities.

Banks have said they do not close accounts for religious or political reasons, and that decisions to avoid certain industries or clients reflect laws requiring them to screen for criminal activity and money laundering, or other regulatory pressures meant to safeguard institutions, according to the Journal. JPMorgan has said it has parted ways with customers in some cases where they create “legal or regulatory risk for the company,” Bloomberg reported.

Trump in January personally sued JPMorgan and its chief executive, Jamie Dimon, alleging the bank improperly closed his accounts for political reasons after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, according to the Journal. The Trump family last year also sued Capital One Financial Corp., saying the bank notified Trump-affiliated businesses in 2021 that it was closing more than 300 accounts. 

The banks have denied acting illegally. JPMorgan is awaiting a ruling on its request to move the Trump case to New York from Florida, where it was filed, according to Bloomberg.