House Republicans released a new update on their ActBlue probe, accusing the Democratic fundraising platform of covering up fraudulent donations, potentially taking foreign money, concealing evidence from Congress, and lying about its security standards.
Citing an ActBlue staff report, the committees say the company took “a more lenient approach” to fraud prevention in 2024 and weakened those rules at least twice, even after internal reviews warned of a measurable rise in fraudulent gifts. Training told staff to “look for reasons to accept contributions” instead of checking closely for fraud, as federal rules require.
ActBlue had already found at least 22 major fraud campaigns on the platform, including several from foreign sources. Republicans accuse it of accepting “illegal foreign political donations” and then covering that up.
As an example, CEO Regina Wallace-Jones told Steil that donors with addresses outside the United States had to give a passport number. Republicans say that check only confirms the entry has the right number of characters, not that it is a valid U.S. passport. Internal notes described one donation as a “great accept,” despite noting that the “donor sometimes has an IP in Hong Kong.”
ActBlue has told the committees there is no evidence that foreign or small-dollar online gifts are a problem in U.S. elections. Multiple ActBlue leaders who appeared before Congress invoked the Fifth Amendment, meaning they refused to answer on the grounds the answers could be used against them in a criminal case.
