ActBlue CEO Set To Testify On Alleged Fundraising Fraud

The head of the Democrats’ mega campaign fundraising platform is set to take the hot seat Wednesday on Capitol Hill, where she can expect a grilling from House Republicans about a campaign donations operation long under a cloud of suspicion. 

ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones is scheduled to appear before the full House Administration Committee for a 10 a.m. hearing on “Preventing Fraudulent Donations: Transparency, Verification, and Accountability.”

Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., said he has a lot of questions for Jones. 

“In particular, why are there, and have there been, lax fraud standards at ActBlue,” Steil told me late last week on The Vicki McKenna Show on WIBA in Madison. 

‘Misstatements’

In April, a House Administration report detailed allegations of illicit foreign donations and a cover-up that spurred mass resignations and terminations of ActBlue’s legal and compliance team. Earlier in the month, The New York Times reported that the donation collector’s lawyers had warned that “ActBlue may have misled Congress” about how it handled foreign contributions.

“According to subsequent media reports, this mass exodus was a direct consequence of ActBlue’s failure to deter illegal foreign political donations,” the Administration Committee report charged. It notes Regina Wallace-Jones’ “previous misstatements” to Congress. ActBlue has denied the allegations.

Federal law bars foreign nationals without lawful permanent residency in the U.S. from contributing to federal candidates or PACs. 

Beyond “misstatements,” ActBlue employees deposed by the committees declined to answer questions about the platform’s activities and security processes. During the five depositions of key ActBlue fraud prevention and legal personnel, “the employees invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in response to every single one of the Committees’ substantive questions,” the report notes. 

Steil’s committee has been investigating ActBlue for the better part of the last two years, a probe that started after reports emerged that the multi-billion dollar fundraising platform was accepting political donations without a card verification value (CVV). Wallace-Jones responded by assuring the chairman that ActBlue’s security processes, procedures, and compliance “foster trust” for donors and candidates and committees. 

As the committee began peeling back the onion, however, more questions and concerns surfaced. 

“I have real and substantive concerns that non-U.S. citizens, meaning foreign actors abroad, are making donations via online donation platforms. This is why this investigation is so essential,” Steil said in the radio interview. He added that there most be something legally suspect going on if The New York Times — the Democratic Party’s mouthpiece — is reporting on the platform’s troubles. 

“This is our chance to get the answers for the American people, set the record straight, and then move forward with real policies that actually show what we need to do to prevent this thing from ever happening again,” the chairman said. 

And accountability? That remains to be seen. 

‘Incredibly Alarming’

Republican lawmakers continue to dig. The investigation’s scope widens. 

Last week, Steil, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., requested documents and transcribed interviews with five members on the platform’s board of directors. In letters to the board members, the committee chairmen assert that ActBlue’s actions have “obstructed and slowed” legislation aimed at protecting U.S. elections against foreign interference and contribution fraud. ActBlue staff, according to congressional requests, notified the board members about vulnerabilities within the system caused by “knowing and willful” acceptance of foreign donations.

“Chairwoman Kimberly Peeler-Allen reportedly stated that there was ‘significant alarm’ among the Board at that time, not about ActBlue’s potentially illegal conduct, but about the fact that ActBlue’s outside counsel were trying to ‘cover’ themselves by warning ActBlue about the legal ramifications of its actions,” the House letters state.

Peeler-Allen, according to her bio, has been “working at the intersection of race, gender and politics for almost 20 years.”

The chairwoman, according to The Times, said that ActBlue, apparently in consultation with its board, opted not to “correct” Wallace-Jones’ “false or misleading” statements to Congress. 

ActBlue’s union, too, raised concerns and notified the board of “an alarming pattern of ‘constant turnover’ that diminished the union’s “confidence in the stability of the organization,” according to internal emails obtained by the committee. The union also voiced concern about “incredibly alarming,” “deeply unsettling[,] and disturbing” treatment of an ActBlue employee who attempted to alert leaders of potentially illegal activity, the congressional letters state.

The committees gave the platform’s board members until the close of business on June 16 to turnover requested records. 

‘To Subvert our Laws’

Records obtained through congressional subpoenas confirmed suspicions that ActBlue had accepted unverified payments during record-smashing fundraising totals for the Democrat Party’s presidential replacement candidate, then-Vice President Kamala Harris in the summer of 2024. 

Harris raised an astonishing $81 million in the 24 hours following President Joe Biden calling it quits in July 2024. “In August, the campaign said it raised $361 million, bringing the total to more than $615 million in fundraising since Harris had entered the race,” CBS News reported in October 2024. The congressional investigation has found donations poured through the platform from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Colombia, and other countries, as The Federalist reported previously.

ActBlue has denied wrongdoing and insists that it has cooperated with the committees’ oversight requests. In an April 28 letter, the fundraising platform called claims that officials have impeded the congressional investigation “baseless.” 

“Our platform has done more than any other, regardless of party, to prevent improper donations and protect donors,” ActBlue representative De’Andra Roberts-LaBoo told The Washington Post in April. 

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (also the Texas GOP’s candidate for Senate), has filed a lawsuit alleging ActBlue lied to congress, and violated state law. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Sterns, a Clinton appointee, appears poised to tank the lawsuit. In court last week he mused about the “chilling effect” Paxton’s lawsuit could have on political speech. 

But what if that speech is delivered through illegal means? 

“The radical left has relied on ActBlue as a way to funnel foreign donations and dark money into their political campaigns to subvert our laws and compromise the integrity of our elections,” Paxton said in a press release. 

Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.