A Texas real estate agent who took a private plane after the riot at the U.S. Capitol could not use PayPal to accept donations, the company said.
Jennifer Ryan, who goes by Jenna Ryan on social media, was charged last week after federal authorities said she violated the Capitol on January 6 with other supporters of then-President Donald Trump.
The broker in Dallas was charged with disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds and knowingly entered or stayed in any restricted building or site without lawful access.
Ryan tweeted a link to her PayPal account on Thursday, asking for help paying legal fees and ‘losses due to my arrest and charges’. She received $ 1,000 before PayPal closed the account.
“I’m surrounded by hateful people who call me a racist and ask me to go to jail for ten or twenty years and say all sorts of horrible things about me. They do not even know me. They want my business. Destroy. I have need help patriots, “she wrote in a tweet that has now been removed.
PayPal said that although it has a long-standing policy of allowing fundraising for legal defense, Ryan has violated its policy by raising money for additional purposes.
“PayPal is reviewing accounts thoroughly, and if we learn that funds are being used for anything other than legal defense, the account will be subject immediately,” a company spokesman said in a statement Friday.
Ryan did not immediately send a phone call and email for comment.
Federal authorities said in court documents released last week that Ryan had traveled to Washington DC with a group on a private plane earlier this month. In a Facebook video that has since been removed, the real estate agent said she was “going to storm the Capitol”.
“They are down there now and that’s why we came and that’s what we’re going to do. So congratulate me,” she said according to court documents.
Investigators said she also streamed live to enter the Capitol and then tweeted about it hours later.
‘We just stormed into the capital [sic]. It was one of the best days of my life, ‘she wrote.
During an interview with the NBC program “Today”, Ryan said that she went to the Capitol because she believes the election was difficult, but denies that she participated in the violence.
“I was like, ‘I do not want to be here,’ and so I walked out of the Capitol,” she said. “And they kept going and I did not want to be a part of it, whatever it was. Then I was just there to document from then on, because I really saw it as a protest. “
Five people were killed during the offense, including a Capitol police officer.
