House Committees Accuse ActBlue of Facilitating Illegal Foreign Donations

Three Republican-led congressional committees, including the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, released a series of reports alleging that the Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue knowingly facilitated illegal foreign donations and covered up the evidence. The investigation claims ActBlue maintained unserious fraud-prevention practices, including a passport verification system that merely checked for the correct number of characters rather than verifying data against government databases.

Internal records cited in the reports suggest that fraud analysts were instructed to ignore red flags, such as foreign IP addresses, and give donors the benefit of the doubt. The committees also detailed a practice called smurfing, where large illegal contributions were broken into small donations attributed to unwitting individuals. Furthermore, the reports allege that ActBlue executives retaliated against legal counsel Zain Ahmad after he escalated these concerns, and that the entire legal and compliance team resigned following the 2024 election.

In response to congressional subpoenas, CEO Regina Wallace-Jones and several other executives invoked their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against the platform over these practices. ActBlue has dismissed the inquiry as a politically motivated stunt, citing a third-party forensic review claiming 99.99% of 2023 contributions provided a U.S. address or passport number.