He graduated from The Hotchkiss School and Yale University, where he was a member of Skull and Bones.
Like his brother George H. W. Bush, he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity at Yale.
On May 15, 2004, The Washington Post published an article that said, "A political Web site written by a Democratic operative drew attention yesterday to the fact that President Bush's uncle, Jonathan J. Bush, is a top executive at Riggs Bank, which this week agreed to pay a record $25 million in civil fines for violations of law intended to thwart money laundering.
Moreover, the newspaper quoted a spokesman for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency as saying "any suggestion of political influence in the Riggs situation is 'preposterous.'"
In 1991, Bush was fined $30,000 in Massachusetts and several thousand dollars in Connecticut for violating registration laws governing securities sales.