Ex-Chicago mayor Lightfoot faces lawsuit for $11k unpaid credit card debt to JP Morgan

WASHINGTON (TNND) — Ex-Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was sued by JP Morgan Chase Bank for allegedly failing to pay thousands of dollars in credit card bills.

Last October, Lightfoot was served at her $900,000 Chicago home. The lawsuit accuses her of failing to pay off $11,078 in credit card debt, according to the Chicago Tribune.

In March 2025, JP Morgan Chase Bank declared Lightfoot’s debt to be a charge-off, meaning that it would be sent to debt collectors, and Lightfoot did not object, according to the lawsuit. She made a final $5,000 payment on her balance in August 2025. Her next court hearing for the lawsuit is not until December.

Lightfoot served as Chicago’s mayor from 2019 and 2023 after losing re-election. She is the first Chicago mayor in 40 years to lose her re-election bid, and she left office with historically low approval ratings. As Chicago’s mayor, Lightfoot made an annual salary of $216,000. However, in 2021, Lightfoot made $402,414. That year, Lightfoot also reported withdrawing $210,000 early from her retirement account.

After losing her re-election bid, Lightfoot went on to take up teaching positions at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics and the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy.

Lightfoot made headlines last year when she was tapped as special investigator to investigate Dolton, Illinois, Mayor Tiffany Henyard over allegations that she misused the village’s funds. Lightfoot’s report found that in 2023 alone, Henyard charged close to $780,000 to Dolton’s credit cards, including $40,000 from purchases from Amazon.

“The costs to taxpayers have been significant, starting with a substantial budget deficit, higher costs for basic necessities like liability insurance, and many lawsuits against the Village directly related to allegations of misconduct by Henyard and others,” Lightfoot said in a statement.

And last week, following the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent, Lightfoot launched the ICE Accountability Project, which will serve as a central system for people to document ICE agents’ alleged abuses.