ActBlue officials are now facing potential subpoenas after refusing to testify before Congress about allegations of fraudulent campaign donations, foreign contributions, and money laundering schemes that may have funneled millions into Democratic campaigns.
The refusal of ActBlue officials to testify deepens concerns about what practices they might be trying to hide from public scrutiny. With the integrity of our elections at stake, this probe represents a crucial step toward ensuring that foreign money and fraudulent donations do not corrupt our elections.
On May 7, Committee on House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil (WI), House Committee on the Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (OH), and Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman James Comer (KY) sent a letter to AG Pam Bondi sharing the findings of the Committees' ongoing investigation into ActBlue. “As we continue our oversight to inform potential legislative reforms, the Committees would like to emphasize the importance of the ActBlue investigation and work collaboratively with DOJ to improve and strengthen the integrity of America’s electoral system,” per the letter.
Highlights
Congressional Investigation Intensifies! Steil, Jordan, Comer and their committees have launched a joint investigation into ActBlue, the Democrats’ primary fundraising platform. The investigation focuses on allegations that ActBlue has weak fraud prevention practices that potentially allow illegal foreign contributions to flow into U.S. political campaigns.
After initially agreeing to interviews, ActBlue officials suddenly withdrew following President Trump’s request for a DOJ investigation, prompting congressional leaders to consider compelling testimony through subpoenas. “As we have explained, the Committees are examining allegations that ActBlue, a leading political fundraising organization, allowed bad actors, including foreign actors, to exploit the company’s online platform to make fraudulent political donations,” stated Jordon.
The committees have released an interim staff report titled “Fraud on ActBlue: How the Democrats’ Top Fundraising Platform Opens the Door for Illegal Election Contributions.” The report reveals that ActBlue made its fraud-prevention rules ‘more lenient’ twice in 2024—even though there is extensive fraud on the platform, including from foreign sources; and how ActBlue executives and staff are aware that both foreign and domestic fraudulent actors are exploiting the platform but do not take the threat seriously. In fact, they attempted to hide the changes to avoid sparking discussions about fraud on the platform.
The report also details how ActBlue’s practices may violate federal campaign finance laws, including the SHIELD Act, which prohibits accepting online contributions without proper card verification value (CVV) and billing address verification, or from prepaid cards, all practices ActBlue actively engages in.
Congressional investigation revealed ActBlue actually loosened fraud prevention standards in 2024 despite evidence of extensive fraud.
Troubling Internal Practices Exposed
Of concern is that ActBlue’s internal policies actually made its fraud prevention rules more lenient in 2024 despite much evidence of extensive fraud. Internal documents obtained by the committees suggest that ActBlue executives and staff were aware of fraudulent activities and still updated ActBlue’s training guide for new fraud prevention, by explicitly encouraging employees to “look for reasons to accept contributions” rather than flag suspicious donations.
In another alarming finding, the investigation revealed that in just a 30-day period in 2024, ActBlue detected 237 donations from foreign IP addresses using domestic prepaid cards. Despite this clear red flag, these contributions apparently continued to flow through the system. Additionally, ActBlue’s chief fraud prevention official was reportedly willing to accept more fraud while focusing on DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives within the organization, indicating a concerning prioritization of ideology over legal compliance.
ActBlue’s Internal Turmoil
Reports indicate ActBlue is experiencing significant internal turmoil, with several staff resignations and a lack of a functioning legal team—hardly reassuring signs for an organization handling hundreds of millions in political donations. In late February 2025, at least seven senior officials resigned from ActBlue including the associate general counsel (the highest-ranking legal officer), the chief revenue officer, the customer service director, the partnerships director, the assistant research director, a human resources official, and a senior engineer with 16 years at the organization.
Rep. James Comer has likened the investigation to the probe of the Biden family, stating, “We’re investigating ActBlue the same way we investigated the Bidens… We’re starting with the suspicious activity reports—bank violations that flag financial crimes. And let me tell you, the evidence is overwhelming.” said Rep. James Comer, R-Ky.
Broader Implications and Next Steps
President Trump has directed the DOJ to “investigate allegations regarding the unlawful use of online fundraising platforms to make ‘straw’ or ‘dummy’ contributions or foreign contributions to political candidates.” Meanwhile, several state AGs have launched their own investigations into ActBlue’s practices.
Many have been tracking the alleged ActBlue criminal activity for several years. I have written many Substack articles on the subject, showing documented evidence of what appears to be hundreds of millions of dollars being illegally laundered per Federal Elections Commission (FEC) publicly available records on the fec.gov website and various other state government campaign finance reporting websites.
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