After more than a year of investigating the security of Democratic political donation platform ActBlue, the Republican-led Committee on House Administration is expanding its inquiry to include Sift, the platform’s former fraud detection provider.
In a letter sent Monday, Committee Chairman Bryan Steil (R-Wisc.) requested that Sift, which specializes in using artificial intelligence to detect fraudulent transactions, provide all documents related to its anti-fraud security measures, reports of potentially fraudulent transactions, and communications with the Executive Branch regarding alleged illicit donations on ActBlue.
“Because Sift has provided ‘fraud detection and prevention services’ for ActBlue, we write to request your cooperation with our oversight,” Steil wrote. “The potential that these bad actors may have exploited lax security measures provided to ActBlue by Sift forces the Committee to examine the potential criminal and national security ramifications.”
Steil began his probe into ActBlue’s donor verification practices last year, raising concerns that the platform may have allowed foreign and fraudulent contributions. Allegations included laundering foreign donations through prepaid gift cards and accepting numerous small donations, such as repeated $2.50 contributions, from the same individual. Unlike many other fundraising platforms, ActBlue does not require CVV codes for all donor transactions.
Steil escalated the investigation, issuing a subpoena to ActBlue in October 2024 for documents related to its donor verification policies and the potential involvement of foreign actors in U.S. political campaigns.
“As the Committee continues to develop legislation to close loopholes in our campaign finance system and prevent foreign actors from influencing U.S. federal elections, we are issuing this subpoena to better inform our efforts to safeguard our nation’s elections,” Steil stated.
The inquiry now seeks to determine whether Sift’s fraud detection services sufficiently addressed vulnerabilities on ActBlue’s platform and whether additional legislation is needed to enhance the integrity of U.S. election financing.
