WASHINGTON — House Republicans are demanding data from the US Treasury Department that will reveal whether fraudulent campaign contributions were made on an online fundraising platform that has funneled billions of dollars to Democratic candidates in recent election cycles.
GOP lawmakers on the House Oversight and House Administration Committees fired off a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday, requesting all suspicious transactions to lefty fundraising juggernaut ActBlue from Jan. 1, 2023.
“The Committees remain concerned with recent reports suggesting fraud and evasion of campaign finance law by individuals exploiting online contribution platforms, especially ActBlue,” wrote Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), Administration Chairman Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) and Rep. Nick Langworthy (R-NY).
“Until recently, ActBlue had not implemented standard procedures to guard against identity theft and fraud, such as by requiring a Card Verification Value (CVV) to process online transactions,” they said.
“The organization is also the subject of several state-level investigations stemming from allegedly fraudulent contributions made via the platform without the reported contributors’ awareness — serious allegations that, if proven true, would violate federal law.”
“[B]ad actors, including foreign nationals,” may also have illegally donated via unwitting straw donors, according to the House GOPers, who believe those and other so-called “dummy” accounts have proliferated on ActBlue.
A memo obtained by The Post in October shows that the Treasury Department had already identified “hundreds” of Suspicious Activity Reports possibly implicating ActBlue.
But the Republican lawmakers told Bessent that former President Joe Biden’s Treasury Department had “stalled” document queries “for months” — and in Secretary Janet Yellen’s final months had let them “review only limited documents.”
“We write to request Treasury, in its commitment to transparency and cooperation, provide both Committees with the remaining records relevant to our investigations,” added Comer, Steil and Langworthy.
ActBlue helped contribute nearly $2 billion in the 2023-24 campaign to Democratic candidates and causes — with $46.7 million channeled directly to Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign within hours of her succeeding Biden as the nominee.
In total, it’s helped raise more than $16 billion since 2004.
Until last year, the platform did not require CVVs for online transactions with debit cards, credit cards or prepaid gift cards — and some donors made contributions well beyond their means or to the opposite party from the one they usually back, the House GOP probe found.
The probe also showed that, in some instances, hundreds of $2.50 donations to ActBlue have come from the same individual.
In addition to the Republican-led probe, GOP state attorneys general in Missouri, Texas and Wyoming have also looked into ActBlue’s potentially fraudulent fundraising this year over similar allegations of fraudulent fundraising.
A Wisconsin Republican strategist also alleged last year in an explosive racketeering lawsuit against ActBlue that it stole his identity to make 385 fraudulent contributions to liberal groups — including Vice President Kamala Harris’ super PAC.
Mark Block, who served as chief of staff to 2012 GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain, claimed in the suit that $884.38 was given in his name between May and October 2024, with the individual donations falling under $200 thus circumventing any filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
At least seven senior ActBlue officials resigned from their posts in late February, The New York Times reported, amid internal disagreement, worrying Democratic groups and allies such as labor unions.
The Post has reached out to the platform and the Treasury Department for comment.
