A House Republican lawmaker Thursday called on the FBI to begin an inquiry into the main fundraising apparatus of the Democratic Party.
Rep. Andy Biggs sent a letter to Director Kash Patel saying that the online political donation platform for liberal causes known as “ActBlue” raised over $16 billion since 2004, but has been used to “skirt the integrity of federal campaign finance laws.”
“In 2024, President Biden’s Treasury Department found hundreds of suspicious transactions with ActBlue reported by banks. The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Committee on House Administration have been investigating these allegations of misconduct,” wrote Mr. Biggs, Arizona Republican.
“But the previous Administration has stalled access to the necessary documents. This week, Oversight Chairman Comer and Administration Chairman Stiles have renewed their request with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.”
Mr. Biggs noted that there are also accusations of foreign donations through strawmen, specifically originating in China, Russia, Iran and Venezuela.
The Washington Times reached out to ActBlue for comment.
The Times reported last December that ActBlue may have accepted fraudulent donations due to lax security that was not corrected until September.
The Democratic fundraising platform told House lawmakers in a letter last December, after submitting documents to the House Administration Committee, that it had only recently implemented policies to automatically reject high-risk gift-card donations, including those from foreigners.
The platform also had routinely accepted some credit card donations without requiring a three-digit security code known as a card verification value or CVV.
ActBlue implemented additional security measures, organization officials told Congress late last year, but those measures were not in place until Sept. 9, which was nearly the end of the 2024 election cycle.
“While this is a positive step forward, there is still more work to be done to ensure our campaign finance system is fully protected from fraud and unlawful foreign interference,” said Rep. Bryan Steil, Wisconsin Republican and House Administration Committee chairman.
“The documents provided to the Committee also confirm that ActBlue still accepted these concerning payment methods in July, a period when Democrats raised a record number of campaign money before implementing these safeguards.”
House Republicans leading the probe said the lack of security left ActBlue open to illegal straw donations from foreigners.
ActBlue officials defended their security provisions, which include requiring foreign donations to be accompanied by a U.S. passport number and other verification steps.
