Defense of Liberty

Chase Bank
Financial

WePay Payments, owned by JPMorgan Chase, cuts ties with conservative PAC Defense of Liberty, then reverses course: Conservative political action committee Defense of Liberty, founded by former Missouri state representative Paul Curtman, planned to host a paid event on Dec. 3rd in St. Charles, Missouri featuring Donald Trump, Jr. as a speaker. Defense of Liberty used WePay Payments, owned by JPMorgan Chase & Co., to process tickets for the event. The platform emailed the event organizers and informed them that their account "doesn't fit [WePay's] Terms of Service," according to a screenshot posted on Curtman's website. WePay Payments clarified that "[p]er [its] Terms of Service [it is] unable to process for hate, violence, racial intolerance, terrorism, the financial exploitation of a crime, or items or activities that encourage, promote, facilitate, or instruct others regarding the same," according to the screenshots. Defense of Liberty as a result would "no longer be able to use WePay Payments to accept additional payments." WePay Payments added that "[a]ny pending payments will be cancelled and [Defense of Liberty] won't be able to withdraw funds at this time," according to the screenshot. Missouri's Attorney General, Eric Schmitt, tweeted a copy of the letter he sent to JPMorgan Chase & Co., which included a statement from the company reversing its initial decision. "After further review, we determined that this organization didn't violate the terms of service, and we are reaching out to the client to discuss reinstating the account. To be clear, we have never and would never close an account due to a client's political affiliation," said a JPMorgan Chase spokesperson, according to Schmitt's letter.

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