House Committees vow to continue ActBlue probe after report indicates it may have misled Congress
The lawmakers said the report supported their finding that ActBlue weakened its fraud protections during the 2024 election and had insufficient measures to protect against foreign donations.
House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, House Oversight Chair James Comer and House Administration Chair Bryan Steil vowed Monday to continue their probe into how ActBlue vets foreign donations after a report indicated it may have lied to Congress.
A New York Times report last week found that a law firm for ActBlue warned the company last year that it may have misled Congress in a 2023 letter that claimed it used "multilayered” screenings of contributions to help “root out” donations from overseas, but the law firm found that some steps were not always followed.
The lawmakers said the report supported their finding that ActBlue weakened its fraud protections during the 2024 election and had insufficient measures to protect against foreign donations.
“Our investigation found ActBlue’s internal fraud prevention measures were wholly insufficient for preventing illegal foreign campaign donations," the chairmen said. "Today’s reporting reconfirms that finding and raises serious questions about whether ActBlue’s CEO intentionally misled Congress at the onset of this investigation.
"We will continue our investigation and keep all options on the table as we seek the truth," they added.
The development comes after the committees reviewed documents that seemed to confirm that during the 2024 campaign cycle ActBlue issued new standards encouraging staff to “look for reasons to accept contributions.” Before the policy change, the platform failed to require CVV numbers for credit card transactions, increasing fraud risks.
An internal assessment by the company determined the policy change led to “between 14 and 28 additional fraudulent contributions each month,” the committees said.
The documents also show the platform began monitoring potential fraudulent donations from several foreign sources, including hundreds of donations from Brazil, Colombia, India, Iraq, the Philippines and Saudi Arabia, and other countries.
ActBlue has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones maintained to the New York Times that her statements in the 2023 letter were "accurate in the context in which they were written."
Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.