June 18, 2021, (LifeSiteNews) – National banking chain Wells Fargo on Tuesday closed the bank account of conservative speaker and former Republican congressional candidate Lauren Witzke, leaving her without any access to her own money and stranded outside of her home state. Witzke, who ran for Senate in Delaware during the 2020 election cycle and is now a talk show host on Christian broadcast network TruNews, revealed that her Wells Fargo bank account had been “shut down” through a post on her Telegram account, which boasts almost 14,000 followers.
Witzke announced that the bank removed all funds in the process, “leaving me with a zero balance.” The conservative activist proceeded to call the bank to enquire about the lack of funds in her account, but was told that the closure was a “business decision” and that the bank reserves “the right to close [her] account at any time.”
“Had I not been surrounded by friends in Florida, I would be completely stranded,” Witzke continued.
Witzke is well known for her support of former President Donald Trump and was present at the January 6 rally at the Capitol. The conservative commentator has faced censorship since then, including being de-platformed by Twitter in March after she criticized a “transgender” activist who had suggested that “little girls” can be “kinky,” branding the activist “demonic.” Twitter deemed Witzke’s comment “hateful conduct,” subsequently banning the former congressional hopeful.
Although Wells Fargo has not yet published a statement confirming the precise reason behind the closure of her account, Witzke related her concern that the move was motivated by ideology, as has been seen in Big Tech firms like Twitter and Facebook banning conservative media, including LifeSiteNews. “Use this as a warning and get your money out of Wells Fargo if you are a conservative,” she said. “This is so evil.”
LifeSiteNews reached out to Wells Fargo for comment on the account closure, asking about the nature of the decision and whether other conservatives can expect the same treatment. A spokesman for the firm responded by email, staunchly denying any political impetus behind the closure of Witzke’s account. “Wells Fargo does not consider political views or affiliations in making account decisions,” the email stated, adding that accounts “may be closed for a number of reasons based on individual facts and circumstances.”
After explaining that they “cannot discuss customer accounts because they involve confidential customer information,” the spokesman defended the decision to close the conservative pundit’s account, claiming that the company has “reviewed this situation, gave ample notice of our decision and it was handled appropriately.”
The same day that Wells Fargo cancelled Witzke’s account, Pete D’Abrosca, author at the conservative blog American Greatness, announced that his Wells Fargo personal savings account also had been blocked.
D’Abrosca shared the news of his account closure on Twitter Tuesday, claiming he had no prior warning that the bank planned to block his account and speculating on a political motivation for being cancelled, given his public, conservative profile.
.@WellsFargo just closed my accounts with no explanation.
I'm sure it has *nothing* to do with my political opinions.
— Pete D’Abrosca (@pdabrosca) June 15, 2021
“Clearly there’s been some kind of conspiracy within Wells Fargo to ban prominent right wingers from using their banking services,” D’Abrosca told National File. “This is yet another reminder that major monopolies in both banking and tech are not operating within a purely free market capitalistic system. They must be broken up, and their CEOs and executive level employees and board members jailed until we can figure out how to stop discrimination from ‘private’ companies against the political right.”
The right-wing author penned an article for American Greatness on his ordeal with the bank, describing the company as “one of America’s most rapacious institutions” on account of seizing access to his money and refusing to write him a cheque in person. The bank insisted that a cheque was in the post and refused to cancel it in order to write a new one, D’Abrosca said.
D’Abrosca has two other accounts, one business and one checking, with Wells Fargo, both of which he wrote “remain intact, at least at the time of this writing,” in his June 17 column.
In response to the removal of D’Abrosca’s savings from their books, Wells Fargo issued the same statement as they did with Witzke, denying a political motivation and emphasizing that “ample notice of our [Wells Fargo’s] decision” was made.
John Zmirak, author and senior editor at The Stream, commented on the increase of private businesses targeting individuals who espouse conservative views and reject the political pressures of the so-called woke Left.
“Companies like that deserve massive boycotts, street pickets at all their locations, and ultimately to get regulated out of existence by Republicans wherever possible,” Zmirak wrote in a blog, Thursday.
“There’s no neutral ‘free market’ anymore. The left has made it a blasted No Man’s Land, and we must fight to win, insisting on nothing less than unconditional surrender. Don’t spare corporate America till it looks like post-war Japan.”