Congress subpoenas two ActBlue officials to compel testimony in Democrat fundraising probe

Congress issued subpoenas Wednesday to compel testimony from two ActBlue witnesses, significantly escalating a probe into whether the massive online fund-raising platform allowed itself to be misused by foreigners to route improper donations to Democrats in the 2024 election.

The subpoenas issued by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, House Oversight Chairman James Comer and House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil require the two witnesses, former ActBlue Vice President of Customer Service Alyssa Twomey and a senior workflow specialist, to appear for testimony by July 15.

Both witnesses were offered a chance to voluntarily submit to transcribed interviews, but their lawyer declined, citing an ongoing U.S. Justice Department investigation into ActBlue, according to correspondence obtained by Just the News.

"The Committees’ investigation has a clear – and important – legislative purpose," a letter accompanying the subpoenas to the witnesses declared. "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 lawmakers said their investigators have found evidence ActBlue weakened its fraud protections during the 2024 election even though it was aware of foreign efforts to submit illicit donations through the platform.

"The Committees have found significant evidence that ActBlue had 'a fundamentally unserious approach to fraud prevention' during this period," the letter stated. "For example, the Committees discovered that ActBlue weakened its fraud-prevention standards twice in 2024 despite knowledge of significant attempted fraud on the platform, including from foreign actors.

"Similarly, during your tenure,ActBlue’s training guide for new fraud-prevention staff instructed employees to 'look for reasons to accept contributions’ rather than assess potentially fraudulent donations with a skeptical eye," it added. "Other internal ActBlue documents show that top fraud-prevention staff, including you, have assessed that there were several mechanisms by which bad actors could evade ActBlue’s fraud-prevention systems and make illicit donations."

ActBlue responded to word of the subpoenas Wednesday afternoon, saying that while they went to individual witnesses and not to the group that it is concerned the congressional probe is tainted by partisanship.

"This letter was not addressed to ActBlue and we still have not received a direct response from the Committees, but based on what is contained in this letter, it fails to address ActBlue's very serious concerns of the partisan, parallel and collaborative investigations coming from separate branches of government and targeting solely the President’s political opposition," the group said in a statement sent to Just the News.

The committees have been probing ActBlue over lax security measures and whether those vulnerabilities allowed foreign entities to donate to U.S. political campaigns, which is illegal. 

In October, Steil and Sen. Ron Johnson, a fellow Wisconsin Republican, wrote to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines about concerns that four U.S. adversaries may have donated through the platform. 

“We write to you to raise an urgent concern regarding potential illicit election funding by foreign actors,” the lawmakers wrote Yellen in a letter dated Thursday. “CHA has been investigating claims that foreign actors, primarily from Iran, Russia, Venezuela, and China, may be using ActBlue to launder illicit money into U.S. political campaigns.” 

They also said: “Our investigation has indicated that these actors may be exploiting existing U.S. donors by making straw donations without their knowledge.” 

The lawmakers specifically demanded access to any Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) related to money passing through the fundraising platform generated by any U.S. financial institution as part of their anti-money-laundering activities. Congress has been pouring through those SARs in recent days after gaining access to them under the Trump administration.

ActBlue has acknowledged to Congress that it has updated its donor verification policy to automatically reject donations that “use foreign prepaid/gift cards, domestic gift cards, are from high-risk/sanctioned countries, and have the highest level of risk as determined,” by its solution provider, Sift. 

The change occurred just three days after Steil introduced the Secure Handling of Internet Electronic Donations (SHIELD) Act, on Sept. 6, 2024, to ensure foreign money stayed out of online political fundraising. Before the change, Steil said, donations made with foreign gift cards were not automatically rejected by ActBlue before the change, Just the News reported. 

ActBlue has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and says that it is fully cooperating with ongoing investigations. 

"Democratic and progressive campaigns have trusted ActBlue’s two-decade-long track record of innovation and dependability to deliver during big fundraising moments," the firm said in a statement in June 2024 celebrating its 20th anniversary in business. 

According to internal company documents reviewed by the committees, during the 2024 campaign cycle, ActBlue issued new standards encouraging staff to “look for reasons to accept contributions.” Before the policy change, the platform already 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.

The lawmakers and Trump have both asked DOJ to probe ActBlue for possible criminal conduct.

"Federal law (52 U.S.C. 30121 and 30122) strictly prohibits making political contributions in the name of another person, as well as contributions by foreign nationals," Trump wrote in a memo last month making his request to DOJ. "Notwithstanding these laws designed to protect American democracy, press reports and investigations by congressional committees have generated extremely troubling evidence that online fundraising platforms have been willing participants in schemes to launder excessive and prohibited contributions to political candidates and committees."