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Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) on Thursday demanded that JPMorgan Chase explain a decision by one of its subsidiaries to pull out of an event where Donald Trump Jr. was scheduled to speak.
The incident took place between Defense of Liberty PAC and WePay, a payment processor owned by JPMorgan. WePay canceled a contract to handle ticket sales for a Dec. 3 event hosted by the group, citing its list of prohibited activities, forcing its cancellation. The list includes, among other items, “hate, violence, racial intolerance, terrorism,” as well as “forced child labor.”
“After the organization scheduled Donald Trump, Jr., as its speaker for the December event, you unilaterally cancelled the contract,” Hawley noted in his letter, which was addressed to JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon. “You said the contract was void because the event was supposedly ‘illegal’ and ‘More specifically: Per our terms of service, we are unable to process for hate, violence, racial intolerance, terrorism….’ Then you ignored requests by Defense of Liberty to discuss the issue. Only after your
“Kindly respond to my office with a full accounting of your processes, including why those processes broke down, what about this conservative group was mistaken for ‘hate, violence, racial intolerance, terrorism,’ and how you plan to make the organization whole for your decision to break your contract,” Hawley added.
The cancellation affected 3,000 expected attendees who collectively received $30,000 in refunded ticket sales. JPMorgan, as Hawley noted, said WePay made a “mistake” and offered to go forward the event, but organizers said it was too late.
“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,” the bank told media in a statement. “To be clear, we have never and would never close an account due to a client’s political affiliation.”