Law Firm Warned ActBlue About Illegal Foreign Donations
A New York Times report indicates that ActBlue’s 2023 claims of “multilayered” screenings to root out foreign donations may not have been consistently followed. The Times says donors using Apple Pay,PayPal,or Venmo were not always asked for passport details,contrary to what ActBlue described,and the company reportedly offered refunds for donations lacking passport data. Covington & Burling warned of a significant risk that some funds could be illegal foreign-nation contributions, potentially triggering a criminal examination if prosecutors viewed the 2023 letter as an attempt to conceal foreign donations. Internal memos suggested ActBlue could be accused of accepting foreign-national contributions and indicated staff knew the system was not robust, raising the possibility of “knowing and willful” violations. The memos sparked panic at ActBlue,contributing to resignations of top officials and a dispute over who bore obligation,with Covington later said to have been terminated by ActBlue. ActBlue maintains the 2023 letter was accurate in its context, while the company reportedly took quiet steps to strengthen its safeguards. The Trump administration launched an investigation into ActBlue in April 2024, and in June 2025 ActBlue announced new restrictions to automatically reject abroad-origin contributions, including those processed through third-party providers.
ActBlue told Congress in 2023 that it took “multilayered” steps to “root out” illegal donations from foreign citizens. But it turns out “some of the steps … described were not always followed,” according to a new report from The New York Times (NYT).
ActBlue Chief Executive Regina Wallace-Jones claimed in a 2023 letter to Congress that ActBlue conducted “‘multilayered’ screenings of contributions that helped ‘root out’ those from overseas,” the New York Times reported. Such screening claimed to have included processing donations that came from foreign mailing addresses only if the donor had a U.S. passport number. Wallace-Jones also reportedly told Congress that ActBlue would refund donations to those who did not provide a passport number.
But Covington & Burling, the firm then representing ActBlue, found “some of the steps [Wallace-Jones] had described were not always followed.” As The Times reported, citing a memo Covington sent to ActBlue, donors who used Apple Pay, PayPal or Venmo were not asked to provide their passport information.
Covington warned there was “a substantial risk that some of the funds received were impermissible contributions from foreign nationals.” It is illegal for noncitizens and people who are not permanent residents to donate to federal candidates or PACs.
“This presents a substantial risk for ActBlue,” Covington & Burling reportedly warned, adding a potential criminal investigation could occur if prosecutors found ActBlue deliberately tried hide details about its efforts to block foreign donations. Covington reportedly gave ActBlue three options to address the issues with the 2023 letter, including “explicitly correct the record” to Congress, warning that “an aggressive prosecutor may view the November 2023 letter not just as a false statement but as an effort to conceal the foreign contributions.”
One memo reportedly stated that “It can be alleged that ActBlue accepted and/or facilitated the acceptance of foreign-national contributions into American elections.”
“In addition, because ActBlue’s staff was aware that its system was not as robust as necessary, it could be alleged that these violations were ‘knowing and willful,’ a standard that both increases the penalties the F.E.C. might seek and gives the Justice Department jurisdiction for a potential criminal investigation,” the memo states, according to The Times, though neither memo specifically pointed to any illegal contributions.
The memos reportedly triggered panic at “the highest levels of ActBlue,” The Times reported, with “a series of top officials [resigning] in quick succession.”
Covington lawyer and former White House counsel in the Biden administration Dana Remus also “warned Ms. Wallace-Jones that she was at risk of having legal liability and needed her own personal lawyer,” The Times reported, citing two people who were on the call.
Weeks after the memos were sent, Covington was “terminated” by ActBlue who reportedly alleged counsel “bordered on malpractice.” ActBlue is reportedly trying to place the blame on Covington over the 2023 letter as well, alleging Covington did not properly review the 2023 letter in question.
And while Wallace-Jones claimed her statements to Congress “were accurate in the context in which they were written” and ActBlue insists the letter was nonetheless accurate, The Times reported that ActBlue took “quiet steps to strengthen its efforts to block foreign donations.”
A spokesman for Covington said the firm has “complete confidence in the legal advice our lawyers provided to ActBlue,” according to The Times. Notably, the Trump administration launched an investigation into ActBlue last April.
ActBlue sent a new letter to Congress in June of 2025 that the platform “has recently implemented additional restrictions that will automatically reject contributions with indicators that they come from abroad, including contributions made through third-party payment processors.”
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2
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