John Jefferson
House Republicans issued a subpoena this week to the Democratic fundraising platform, ActBlue, as part of an ongoing effort to obtain more information about certain questionable transactions and the platform’s process for vetting its donors.
In a letter to ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones, House Administration Committee Chair Bryan Steil, R-Wis., requested that the platform turn over more information about its process and policies for verifying donors before Nov. 6, the day after this year’s general election.
He said the subpoena is a bid to “safeguard our nation’s elections” and “close loopholes in our campaign finance system,” including contributions from donors whose identities were not as stringently vetted.
The request, sent just days ahead of the presidential election, comes as Republicans have expressed mounting concerns over ActBlue’s security policies and processes for vetting donors, which the platform has addressed in recent months with some policy changes.
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Until recently, the platform did not require online donors to submit their credit card verification value (CVV) when donating online — prompting criticism from House Republicans, including Steil, who noted that the lack of verification could allow for “potentially fraudulent and illicit financial activity” by foreign donors.
“We cannot allow foreign actors to influence our elections through campaign financing. The Committee’s investigation uncovered that foreign actors might be taking advantage of ActBlue’s inadequate security protocols,” Steil said in his letter.
To date, there has been no evidence or records that such activity has taken place. Additionally, ActBlue, for its part, did begin requiring CVV numbers in August.
The subpoena request comes on the heels of a New York Post report this week that the Treasury Department has identified “hundreds of records of transactions” made on the app that were flagged by banks as potentially suspicious. The department is currently reviewing those records.
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., said this week that his office is “working closely with Treasury” to obtain the materials “expeditiously.”
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Steil and the rest of the House Administration Committee are also working to obtain more information from ActBlue about donations collected in previous months.
On Wednesday, Steil sent a letter to the platform seeking information related to the platform’s donor verification policies and potential vulnerabilities.
He also introduced legislation in September seeking to require political committees and donor platforms such as ActBlue to adopt more stringent vetting processes.
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The legislation would also prohibit the acceptance of contributions from prepaid gift cards, and adopt a bipartisan FEC recommendation to prohibit individuals from “knowingly aiding or abetting someone” who makes a contribution in the name of another person.
The legislation passed the committee by voice vote, and has not yet been brought to the floor for a full vote.
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