Republican lawmakers say key players behind the Democrat Party’s suspect online fundraising platform have been less than cooperative with the House committees investigating possible foreign contributions into U.S. political campaigns. Now, the reluctant officials at ActBlue will be compelled to tell what they know.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., issued subpoenas this week to two ActBlue insiders who have “failed to comply with the Committees’ voluntary processes,” a press release states.
ActBlue’s former Vice President of Customer Service Alyssa Twomey and an unidentified ActBlue Senior Workflow Specialist must now face depositions regarding allegations that the online fundraising platform “accepted fraudulent donations from domestic and foreign sources.” Documents obtained in the investigation show Twomey managed ActBlue’s fraud-prevention team. The specialist, according to documents obtained in the investigation, has been the “top fraud-prevention employee at ActBlue.”
“The Committees have found significant evidence that ActBlue had ‘a fundamentally unserious approach to fraud prevention” during this period,’” states the congressional letters informing the ActBlue employees of the subpoena.
ActBlue, according to the committees, “weakened its fraud-prevention standards twice in 2024 despite knowledge of significant attempted fraud on the platform, including from foreign actors.” And the organization’s training guide instructed new fraud-prevention staff to “look for reasons to accept contributions” rather than scruitinize “potentially fraudulent donations with a skeptical eye.”
‘Unverified’ Transactions
The committees have issued other subpoenas seeking documents from the fundraising platform. As The Federalist has reported, records obtained through previous subpoenas confirmed suspicions that ActBlue had accepted unverified payments during record-smashing fundraising totals for the Democrat Party’s presidential replacement candidate, then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
In the 24-hour period last July after then-President Joe Biden announced he was ending his re-election bid, Harris’ campaign said it hauled in an eye-popping $81 million.
“In August, the campaign said it raised $361 million, bringing the total to more than $615 million in fundraising since Harris had entered the race,” CBS News reported at the time.
ActBlue has since updated its policies, rejecting donations without identification safeguards, but only after the fundraising bonanza, according to Steil.
The congressional investigation to date has found donations poured through the platform from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Colombia, and other countries.
“Between September 2022 and November 2024, ActBlue racked up 1,900 fraudulent transactions in total, but House Republicans who published the company’s internal documents in a report claim the suspicious donations are far more “widespread,” the New York Post reported.
‘Of Its Choosing’
The latest round of subpoenas come after delays by the ActBlue insiders and their attorneys. According to the letters, the committees first sought the employees’ “informal testimony” on March 20. After Twomey apparently agreed on April 21 to appear for a voluntary transcribed interview, her attorney balked. In early May, he advised his clients not to appear before the committees until he had “more information” about the Department of Justice’s announced investigation into “the unlawful use of online fundraising platforms to make ‘straw’ or ‘dummy’ contributions or foreign contributions to political candidates and committees,” according to the subpoena letter.
In April, President Donald Trump issued a memorandum directing the DOJ to investigate concerning reports “that foreign nationals are seeking to misuse online fundraising platforms to improperly influence American elections.”
According to the subpoena letters, the attorney for the ActBlue insiders, Danny Onorato, asked the committees to withdraw their requests for interviews until the DOJ “completes its investigation or clarifies its position with respect” to his clients. That was a bridge too far.
In their letters, the committee chairmen remind the ActBlue employees that, regardless of what their attorney advises, Congress has full oversight authority. It can compel testimony “in a time, place, and manner of its own choosing.” And the committees have plenty of federal court cases and the Constitution backing them up on that fact.
According to the subpoena letters, ActBlue claims the committees’ requests violate the First Amendment and the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause by “selective[ly] focus[ing]” on ActBlue.” The chairman called balderdash! They again pointed to congressional prerogative and the obligation witnesses have to respond to congressional inquiries.
In a May 29 letter, Onorato noted his concerns that the committees have promised to “‘work collaboratively with DOJ’ in its parallel investigation,” according to the subpoena letters. The chairmen charge that the characterization is a distortion of their May 7 letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi in which they pledged to “work collaboratively with DOJ to improve and strengthen the integrity of America’s electoral system.”
“That shared policy outcome is not evidence of improper motivation, as Mr. Onorato implies, in the Committees’ oversight inquiry,” the chairmen assert.
‘A Specific Interest’
Onorato is big shot defense attorney, specializing in white-collar crime. He is founding partner of the Washington, D.C.-based Schertler Onorato Mead & Sears, “a premier boutique white-collar litigation firm,” according to his bio. The former federal prosecutor-turned-defense-attorney has represented “executives from high profile cases including HealthSouth, Enron, KPMG and Fannie Mae,” another bio states.
Onorato’s firm has also represented Nadine Menendez, wife of disgraced former ex-New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez. The latter this month began serving an 11-year prison sentence for “accepting bribes of gold and cash and acting as an agent of Egypt.” Nadine was convicted in April for her part in the crimes and is scheduled to be sentenced in September.
In their letter, the chairmen of the congressional committees informed the ActBlue witnesses that their investigation has a “clear —and important — legislative purpose.”
“Congress has a specific interest in ensuring that bad actors, including foreign actors, cannot make fraudulent or illegal political donations through online fundraising platforms,” the subpoena letters state.
And in pursuit of fact-finding, the investigation will go on and the witnesses will now be compelled to answer congressional questions.
“You are uniquely positioned to aid the Committees’ oversight,” the letter to Twomey closes.