PayPal bans Jenna Ryan, the Texas realtor who took a private jet to the Capitol riot, after she used it to fundraise her legal defense
- PayPal has banned Texas realtor Jenna Ryan from its platform.
- Ryan had become famous after taking a private plane to DC, where she was charged with participating in the Capitol riot.
- She said on Twitter that she raised $1,000 for her legal defense before the ban.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
PayPal has banned an account belonging to Jenna Ryan, a participant in the Capitol building riot, after she used it to raise money for her legal defense.
"PayPal has a policy to allow fundraising for legal defense purposes," a PayPal spokesperson told CBS News. "PayPal thoroughly reviews accounts, and if we learn that funds are used for anything other than legal defense, the account will be subject to immediate closure. We can confirm that the account in question has been closed."
Ryan drew widespread attention during the January 6 insurrection after posting photos and videos on Facebook of herself taking a private jet to Washington, DC, and advertising her skills as a realtor in Texas while going through the grounds of the Capitol.
"Y'all know who to hire for your realtor. Jenna Ryan for your realtor," she said just before going into the Capitol building, according to an FBI affidavit.
The affidavit also included a photo of her posing next to a broken window at the building and threatening to "go after" news organizations.
Ryan was charged on January 15. In an interview with a CBS affiliate after her arrest, she said she didn't partake in any violence and asked for a pardon from President Donald Trump. Trump didn't pardon her before leaving office on January 20.
She also said she was simply following Trump's instructions when she stormed the Capitol building.
"I don't feel a sense of shame or guilty from my heart," Ryan told the CBS affiliate. "I feel like I was basically following my president. I was following what we were called to do. He asked us to fly there. He asked us to be there. So I was doing what he asked us to do."
She has yet to enter a plea in her case.
To raise money for her legal defense, Ryan posted to Twitter Thursday that she was raising money on PayPal after a different fundraising platform, Fundly, had already banned her. She said Fundly had called her "racist."
"I am accepting donations to pay legal fees and losses due to my arrest and charges by the FBI for protesting at the US Capitol. Thank you for your support. Any amount helps," Ryan posted to Twitter. "All my computers were confiscated as well as my phone and my Maga hat."
Ryan said she had raised $1,000 before PayPal banned her account.
On Thursday, Ryan posted that she was a believer of the QAnon conspiracy theory, which falsely holds that Trump is fighting against a "deep state" of satanic pedophiles.
"The truth of the matter is that Q was correct. Evil people will have their day. God's timing is perfect," she wrote on Twitter.
An attorney representing Ryan didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.