Former General Electric head Jack Welch told CNBC on Tuesday that JPMorgan's costly legal battles with the federal government are the result of "a witch hunt."
JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon "is a great CEO, and I think he's in the crosshairs. ... I hope this settlement that he gets clears the decks," Welch said.
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JPMorgan agreed Tuesday to a $13 billion settlement with the U.S. over its mortgage-securities sales, but Welch said that is "just the beginning" and that other companies will be pursued.
"The other guys will be behind him," he said. "Regulators will probably leverage them all down based on their earnings capability and get to them all. Look, fines are everywhere—you've got regulators looking for everything. ... They are looking for money everywhere, and the piggy bank is in the private sector."
Steep fines and a heavy regulatory hand have a negative impact on the economy and will lead to lower job growth, Welch said.
"If the regulators come to work with attitude of 'get the bastards' and not 'how do we grow the economy,' [then] they'll get the bastards and they will not grow the economy," he said. "You cant take this money out of the economy."
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Earlier, the Labor Department said the nation had added 148,000 jobs in September, versus expectations for 180,000.
Welch blamed the economic turmoil on lawmakers.
"Bureaucrats just sitting in an office in Washington are doing nothing other than throwing out the charges, collecting the dough and saying, 'Why aren't we growing jobs?' " he said.
—By CNBC's Karma Allen