WASHINGTON — Republican committee chairmen blasted a top Democratic fundraising official after an explosive New York Times report indicated she misled them about ActBlue’s safeguards against foreign donations illegally being funneled into US elections.
Leaders of the House Oversight, Judiciary and Administration Committees in a joint statement on Thursday said The New York Times’ bombshell report on the Democratic fundraising platform “raises serious questions about whether ActBlue’s CEO intentionally misled Congress” during a more than two-year investigation.
ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones had informed House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) in a November 2023 letter that her platform conducted “multilayered” screenings to “root out” any potential donations coming from abroad.
But the law firm Covington & Burling, which was employed by ActBlue, revealed in memos to the online fundraising platform that it was at “substantial risk” of receiving foreign contributions due to changes in its vetting standards, The Times reported.
Lawyers also suggested that any attempt to conceal information about prevention efforts aimed at stopping foreign donors from contributing to Democratic campaigns could result in a criminal probe.
“The New York Times unfortunately disregarded extensive evidence we made available to them because it did not fit their desired story,” said ActBlue spokesperson De’Andra Roberts-LaBoo in a statement.
“The reality is that ActBlue CEO, Regina Wallace-Jones, never made false statements to Congress, as confirmed by several in-house and outside attorneys — including the very sources who are now offering a different story to the press.”
“ActBlue is stable and stronger than ever. We have a passionate team and we’re expanding our product suite, all while continuing to break fundraising records,” the rep added.
More than half-a-dozen ActBlue senior officials resigned in late February following the Covington & Burling memos, according to The Times. The platform has helped funnel almost $19 billion to Democratic campaigns and causes since 2004.
Foreigners are barred from donating to US campaigns, and making false statements to Congress is a federal crime.
The House GOP chairman — including Steil, Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) — found as part of their investigation that ActBlue changed its fraud policy twice during the 2024 campaign cycle, using “more lenient” standards than previous cycles.
According to internal company documents first reported by The Post, fraud-prevention standards were relaxed in April 2024 and again in September that year, meaning as much as 6.4% of donations could have flowed from illicit sources.
ActBlue also hadn’t mandated that a card verification value (CVV) be entered for debit, credit or prepaid gift card transactions until January 2024 — around halfway through the election cycle — and the newer standards still instructed employees to “look for reasons to accept contributions,” the documents showed.
Kimberly Peeler-Allen, who serves as chairwoman of ActBlue’s board of directors, told The Times that “less than 1 percent” of donations in 2024 showed signs that they originated from foreigners.
One of the memos from its legal firm also stated: “It can be alleged that ActBlue accepted and/or facilitated the acceptance of foreign-national contributions into American elections.”
“In addition, because ActBlue’s staff was aware that its system was not as robust as necessary, it could be alleged that these violations were ‘knowing and willful,’ a standard that both increases the penalties the FEC might seek and gives the Justice Department jurisdiction for a potential criminal investigation,” the memo noted.
In other cases, ActBlue didn’t demand passport information from contributors who used Apple Pay, PayPal or Venmo for their donations.
At least 237 overseas transactions using prepaid cards were flagged, however, just between September and October 2024, according to the documents obtained by the GOP chairmen, including from Brazil, Colombia, India, Iraq, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and other nations.
“Our investigation found ActBlue’s internal fraud prevention measures were wholly insufficient for preventing illegal foreign campaign donations,” Steil, Comer and Jordan said in their statement.
“We will continue our investigation and keep all options on the table as we seek the truth.”
Last year, the House committees subpoenaed three of ActBlue’s lawyers, some of its officials and two contractors two employees of the AI-powered fraud prevention software firm Sift who worked with ActBlue, The Post previously reported.
The inquiry began following reports in October 2023 that the platform wasn’t forcing donors to put in their CVVs.
President Trump signed a memo in April 2025 that led to a Department of Justice investigation into whether illicit “straw donors” or foreign funding made its way into federal election campaigns.