Congress requests interviews of former ActBlue officials in fundraising platform fraud probe

Three House committees leading the congressional probe into allegations ActBlue failed to prevent potential fraudulent political donations, some from foreign sources, on Friday demanded that four former officials from the progressive fundraising platform appear for transcribed interviews.

The Administration, Judiciary and Oversight committees launched probes last year after reviewing evidence that the platform, which is widely used by Democratic Party campaigns and progressive causes, accepted donations from foreign sources and employed lax verification standards.

“[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,” Chairmen Rep. Bryan Steil, of Administration; Rep. Jim Jordan of Judiciary; and Rep. James Comer, of Oversight, wrote in a letter to the former officials demanding the interviews. “Documents produced to the Committees and public reporting indicate that you possess information vital to our oversight.”

The former officials who received the letter Friday from the committees are former general counsel Darrin Hurwitz, former Assistant Director of Research Natalie Niemeyer, former Chief Revenue Officer Peter Slutsky, and former Vice President of Customer Service Alyssa Twomey. Since February, each has resigned from their respective role, amid reported allegations of “internal retaliation” and chaos at the company.

None has publicly given an explanation about leaving the company. But the exodus, which included at least seven total senior staff, came amid the ongoing probe by House Republicans.

You can read the letters below:

ActBlue’s fraud prevention procedures have become a focus of particular scrutiny after the committees uncovered evidence the platform changed its donation policies twice during the 2024 election cycle to make its standards “more lenient” and received donations from foreign sources, Just the News reported earlier this month.

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 Committees are concerned that ActBlue has maintained poor anti-fraud practices that may have allowed bad actors to make fraudulent political donations, including from foreign sources,” the chairmen wrote. “Fraudulent political donations corrupt American elections and could amount to interstate criminal conduct.”

The four former senior staff members may have worked closely with ActBlue’s fraud prevention team, the chairmen also wrote. Twomey, specifically, oversaw the fraud prevention team.