Three House Committees Threaten Subpoenas in ActBlue Foreign Donation Probe

Leaders of three House Committees have warned they will issue subpoenas to current and former officials of ActBlue, the Democratic Party’s primary fundraising platform, who have declined to testify in an ongoing investigation into potential foreign and fraudulent donations.

In letters sent last week, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY), and Administration Chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI) stated that several witnesses initially agreed to voluntary interviews but later withdrew. The Committees are examining whether ActBlue's platform was exploited by foreign actors to make illicit political contributions.

“Fraudulent political donations corrupt American elections and could amount to interstate criminal conduct,” the chairmen wrote in letters to the witnesses' attorney, Danny Onorato.

The letters emphasized that an ongoing Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation is not a valid reason to refuse Congressional testimony. “The relevant precedent is clear that the mere existence of state or federal law enforcement investigations has no bearing on Congress’s oversight power,” the lawmakers stated.

The Committees have been investigating ActBlue's security measures and whether vulnerabilities allowed foreign entities to donate to U.S. political campaigns through the platform. In October, Chairman Steil and Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) wrote to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, expressing concerns that adversaries such as Iran, Russia, Venezuela, and China may have used ActBlue to launder money into U.S. campaigns.

In particular, Congressional investigators have raised alarms over mounting evidence that a significant number of political donations processed through ActBlue may have originated from China. Internal records reviewed by House committees reportedly show hundreds of transactions traced to Chinese IP addresses and payment methods flagged as high-risk. Lawmakers say this raises serious national security concerns, as foreign contributions to U.S. political campaigns are strictly prohibited under federal law. According to the October 2024 letter sent by Rep. Steil and Sen. Johnson, there is “credible concern that adversarial foreign nations—including China—may be exploiting ActBlue to funnel illicit money into American elections.”

The investigation intensified after the platform's previous donor verification policies came under scrutiny. Before ActBlue updated its system to block foreign gift and prepaid cards, its failure to require credit card CVV codes and its lenient internal policies allegedly allowed foreign actors to make "straw" donations using the identities of unaware U.S. citizens. While ActBlue has denied wrongdoing and insists it is cooperating with federal authorities, lawmakers maintain that the platform’s vulnerabilities may have enabled a foreign influence campaign at a scale not previously seen in American electoral politics.

ActBlue, a major Democratic fundraising platform, processes individual donations for Democratic candidates and progressive organizations, raising over $16 billion since 2004. Federal law requires that political donations come from U.S. citizens or legal residents, and ActBlue asserts that its donations comply with these regulations, with contributions coming primarily from small-dollar donors, including retirees and others not formally employed. A 2020 analysis by the Take Back Action Fund claimed that 48.4% of ActBlue’s 2019 donations came from individuals reporting as unemployed, raising questions about the legitimacy of some contributions, but it did not provide evidence specifically linking donations to China.

Additionally, a report from O’Keefe Media Group (OMG) suggested that as much as 60% of ActBlue donations may have come from China. Other OMG investigations into ActBlue have allegedly revealed donors who deny having made the significant donations recorded in their names through the ActBlue platform.

ActBlue has acknowledged updating its donor verification policy to automatically reject donations using foreign prepaid or gift cards, domestic gift cards, or originating from high-risk or sanctioned countries, as determined by its fraud detection provider, Sift. This change occurred three days after the introduction of the Secure Handling of Internet Electronic Donations (SHIELD) Act by Chairman Steil in September 2024.

Despite these updates, internal documents reviewed by the Committees indicate that ActBlue previously encouraged staff to “look for reasons to accept contributions,” and did not require CVV numbers for credit card transactions, increasing the risk of fraud. An internal assessment found that policy changes led to an estimated 14 to 28 additional fraudulent contributions each month.

The Committees have set a deadline of May 29 for the witnesses to schedule their interviews, warning that failure to comply will result in subpoenas. “The Committees are prepared to resort to compulsory process, if necessary, to obtain compliance with our requests,” the lawmakers cautioned.

ActBlue has denied any wrongdoing and states that it is fully cooperating with ongoing investigations. In a June 2024 statement celebrating its 20th anniversary, the organization said, “Democratic and progressive campaigns have trusted ActBlue’s two-decade-long track record of innovation and dependability to deliver during big fundraising moments.”

According to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) website, in the 2023-2024 election cycle, Alabama Democratic Congresswoman Terri Sewell (AL-7) received 4,259 donations through ActBlue. Democrat Shomari Figures (AL-2) received 15,265 contributions through ActBlue. (Screen captures of the FEC website are below)

ALPolitics.com will be reaching out to Reps. Sewell and Figures for comment on these donations, as well as the ongoing Congressional and DoJ investigations into ActBlue.