Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is being sued by JPMorgan Chase over an unpaid MileagePlus United credit card balance of $11,078.01 pic.twitter.com/AvcKEtO38q
— Frank Calabrese (@FrankCalabrese) January 13, 2026
Former Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot was sued at the end of last year after allegedly failing to pay more than $11,000 in credit card bills, records show.
The Democrat, 63, was served with a lawsuit from JPMorgan Chase at her $900,000 home in the affluent Wrightwood neighborhood in October.
The lawsuit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, claimed Lightfoot did not dispute with the bank when it declared the debt a charge-off in March 2025. She later paid $5,000 in August that year, which was her last payment on the card, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The former lawmaker’s money troubles mark a sharp decline from her legal career, which saw her report an average adjusted gross income of $971,626 from 2014 to 2017 while a partner at law firm Mayer Brown.
During her historically unpopular time in office from 2019 to 2023, Lightfoot earned $216,000 as mayor.
The Tribune claimed that in 2021, the most recent year the outlet requested her returns, Lightfoot reported $402,414 in adjusted gross income.
That same year, Lightfoot also said she took out $210,000 in early distributions from her retirement accounts to supplement her salary as mayor.
Since becoming the first Chicago mayor to lose re-election in 40 years, Lightfoot has taken on roles as professor at Harvard University, the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics and the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy.