JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A Joplin Republican donor signed a sworn affidavit on Thursday alleging that John Hancock, during his campaign to become chairman of the Missouri Republican Party, may have claimed that State Auditor Tom Schweich was Jewish – a claim denied by two others in the meeting.

The claim that Hancock was saying Schweich was Jewish – and the potentially anti-Semitic implications surrounding it – have been central to an effort led by those close to Schweich to remove Hancock as chairman of the party following Schweich’s suicide last month.

David Humphreys, a businessman who has contributed hundreds of thousands to Republicans here and their causes, in an affidavit filed in Jasper County, said that Hancock had made derogatory comments about Schweich being Jewish (he was not).

“The meaning I took from Mr. Hancock’s statement and tone of his comments was clear: He [Tom Schweich] is Jewish — in case you didn’t know — and that being Jewish is a negative attribute for Tom Schweich’s gubernatorial race,” Humphreys wrote.

Hancock, himself, as well as Paul Mouton – a Southwest Missouri Republican activist with ties to Humphreys who was also in the meeting – denied hearing Hancock say such a thing.

“I was in the meeting and I did not hear John Hancock say anything about Tom Schweich being Jewish,” Mouton, a Carthage, Mo., Republican and close confidant to Hunphreys, said in an interview Thursday evening.

In his own statement, Hancock acknowledged two meetings with Humphreys, including the November 24 he referenced in his affidavit.

“As I have consistently stated, it is possible that I mentioned what I believed to be Tom Schweich’s religion, but if I did so, it would have been at our earlier meeting and it certainly was not in a derogatory manner,” Hancock said. “I absolutely did not make that mistake at our November meeting because I had learned otherwise 10 days previously.”

Humphreys, in an email Thursday evening, said he signed the affidavit at the urging of former U.S. Sen. John Danforth, who delivered a stinging homily last month critical of Hancock and the state of Missouri politics.