Officials from the massive Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue have been called to testify before House Republicans about potential “widespread” fraud as the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) launches its own investigation.
The New York Post reports that a current, unidentified, ActBlue senior workflow specialist and former vice president of customer service Alyssa Twomey received summonses on Wednesday from the GOP-led House Oversight, Judiciary and Administration committees.
President Donald Trump had previously authorized Attorney General Pam Bondi to probe “the unlawful use of online fundraising platforms to make ‘straw’ or ‘dummy’ contributions.”
A lawyer for the ActBlue employees responded to the subpoenas with an appeal to “withdraw requests for transcribed interviews until the Department of Justice completes its investigation or clarifies its position with respect to our clients.”
That appeal drew a sharp reaction from Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) and Administration Chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI) who pointed out that “Many congressional investigations have occurred in parallel to Executive Branch investigations of the same or related matters.”
The GOP Chairmen described the ActBlue attorney’s request as “a fundamentally unserious approach to fraud prevention” in the last election cycle and said that it “amounts to a demand that the Committees forgo testimony that is potentially critical to our legislative oversight.”
Jordan, Comer and Steil added that, “Congress has a specific interest in ensuring that bad actors, including foreign actors, cannot make fraudulent or illegal political donations through online fundraising platforms.”
According to internal documents, during the 2024 election cycle, ActBlue signed off on “more lenient” standards that allowed hundreds of dubious contributions, including many from “foreign IP” addresses.
The Democratic fundraising platform raked in donations from sources without requiring a Card Verification Value (CVV) for transactions until midway through the election cycle.
Internal memos to ActBlue employees tightened the standards in the final part of the election cycle but still encouraged employees to “look for reasons to accept contributions.”
House Oversight and Administration Committee staff determined that, in total, ActBlue had 1900 fraudulent transactions between September 2022 and November 2024.
Also, more than 237 prepaid cards were flagged from foreign IP addresses between Sept and Oct 2024.
The 470 page report from the committee states, “[D]espite repeated instances of fraudulent donations to Democrat campaigns and causes from domestic and foreign sources, ActBlue is not demonstrating a serious effort to deter fraud on its platform.”