Last week, The Gateway Pundit reported on a decision in a Wisconsin county court to allow discovery regarding the Democrat donor mega-platform, ActBlue. The lawsuit was filed when a man’s identity was used almost 400 times to launder money to over 60 different campaigns using the ActBlue platform. The discovery was limited to investigating the specific payments that were made using the plaintiff’s email and name.
However, there is also another investigation into ActBlue being conducted by the House Administration Committee. Today, that committee shared on X that the chairman, Rep. Bryan Steil has “delivered results” showing that “ActBlue changed its policy to automatically reject donations from prepaid cards and sanctioned foreign countries.”
NEW: Revealed in documents shared with the Committee, ActBlue changed its policies to automatically reject donations from prepaid cards and sanctioned foreign countries.
Chairman @RepBryanSteil’s investigation into ActBlue has delivered results in preventing foreign funding…
— House Admin. Committee GOP (@HouseAdmin) December 10, 2024
According to Just The News, this change from ActBlue occurred on September 9th, 2024 and followed the introduction of Rep. Steil’s legislation, the Secure Handling of Internet Electronic Donations (SHIELD) Act, on September 6th, just three days earlier. The SHIELD Act would require the Card Verification Value (CVV) to be captured by donor platforms, which Steil alleges was not required by ActBlue previously.
The SHIELD Act is similar to another bill, the CVV Act, which was introduced by Senator Marco Rubio earlier that year, however, neither of the bills has moved beyond committee, despite polls showing the American public demanding election integrity and reform.
ActBlue claims on its website via a running ticker to have raised more than $16 billion since 2004. The failed Harris-Walz campaign ‘raised’ over $1 billion, yet somehow managed to end their campaign $20 million in debt.
The investigation does not stop at ActBlue. The House Admin. Committee is now also seeking answers from Sift, the company that “provided ‘fraud detection and prevention services’ for ActBlue.” Both Rep. Steil and Rep. Jim Jordan, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, have sent a request to Sift’s CEO, Kris Nagel, requesting the company’s cooperation with oversight and to provide a list of documents dating back to January 2020.
.@Jim_Jordan and I are demanding answers from Sift regarding potentially fraudulent transactions made on ActBlue. I’m committed to preventing foreign funding in our elections. https://t.co/0nBLMEb6OP
— Bryan Steil (@RepBryanSteil) December 10, 2024
Chairman @RepBryanSteil is focused on preventing foreign funding in U.S. elections. It’s imperative that Congress pass the SHIELD Act to prohibit prepaid cards from being used to make donations to political committees through platforms such as ActBlue. pic.twitter.com/Q6YowpCb03
— House Admin. Committee GOP (@HouseAdmin) December 11, 2024
ActBlue came under scrutiny after the exposé from O’Keefe Media Group (OMG) in 2023 regarding smurfing operations. Smurfing is a term used to describe small-dollar donations being made hundreds or even thousands of times by fraudulently using the identity of senior citizens and retired Americans. OMG investigated some of these claims by asking the alleged donors if they had made those donations. The responses, and lack of response from law enforcement thus far, is shocking:
Maryland Woman Denies 1,000+ Donations to ActBlue; OMG Uncovers Fraud Scheme
Cindy Nowe of Annapolis, Maryland, allegedly contributed over 1,000 times to ActBlue in 2022, totaling $18,849.77. That means Cindy would have had to donate three times a day, every day, for the whole… pic.twitter.com/XcHLyepV89
— James O’Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) July 28, 2024
The Federal Elections Commission currently has public comment open regarding a potential rule change to require more checks to ensure identity theft is not occurring with campaign donations.
FEC Opens Public Comment to Potential Rule Change to Thwart Illegal Campaign Contributions After Subpoenas and Donation Laundering Accusations from Ukraine and Others
