Politics
JUST IN: Trump Makes Massive Move Against Democrats’ ActBlue Platform
President Donald Trump is hitting Democrats right where it hurts the most: their national pocketbook.
ActBlue, the party’s preferred vendor for campaign contributions, is the focus of a new presidential memo directing U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to crack down on the alleged proliferation of foreign money in American elections. Federal campaign finance laws prohibit noncitizens from donating to candidates for office.
The order is widely seen to target ActBlue, which Republicans have singled out for a lack of rigor in verifying that donors are indeed citizens.
Trump’s directive didn’t come as a shock to top Democrats who had been girding for weeks in anticipation of such a move.
In a letter to fellow party leaders, ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones wrote, “Nothing will deter or interrupt ActBlue’s mission and work to enable millions of Americans to participate in our democracy. There is an ongoing and persistent effort to weaken the confidence of the American people in what’s possible. This is the next version of ‘the big lie.’”
On Thursday, ActBlue told Politico, “ActBlue plays a vital role in enabling all Americans to participate in our democracy and the organization strictly abides by all federal and state laws governing its activities. We will always stand steadfast in defending the rights of all Americans to participate in our democracy and ActBlue will continue its mission undeterred and uninterrupted, providing a safe, secure fundraising platform for the millions of grassroots donors who rely on us.”
The president’s order builds on an investigation by U.S. House Republicans into the authenticity of Democratic donations on the platform.
Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI), chair of the House Committee on Administration, sent a letter to ActBlue last October demanding information and documents detailing how the platform ensures the identity of its donors, especially those pushing through five- or six-figure sums that could change the outcome of an election.
Two months later, Steil said his pressure had forced ActBlue to adopt measures that will “automatically reject donations that use foreign prepaid/gift cards, domestic gift cards, are from high-risk/sanctioned countries, and have the highest level of risk as determined.” They are a “positive step forward,” he said, but there “is still more work to be done.”
In a press release at the time, ActBlue defended how its “robust security program and strict fraud prevention measures help us rigorously protect donors’ information, root out potentially unlawful foreign contributions, protect donors from financial fraud, and flag potentially unlawful or fraudulent activity.”
In March, Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) jumped on “credible allegations” in the NY Post that ActBlue was found to be the fundraising vehicle for “terror-linked organizations and nonprofits.”
“As mounting evidence of ActBlue’s dangerous corruption piles up, it is imperative that the Department of the Treasury investigate whether ActBlue Charities had reason to know it was handling payments that could support terror,” the Republican lawmaker wrote in a letter to the company.
He singled out donations by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, as well as the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, a George Soros-funded entity that has been linked to anti-Israel student protests laced with antisemitism.
“Neither ActBlue Charities – nor its parent organization ActBlue – have any reliable process to vet users of their platforms for links to terrorism, simply ignore their obligations under the law, and are actively abetting this collaboration,” Issa added.
“Terror financing is an extremely serious crime, and organizations cannot be given a free pass for failed due diligence, or worse, the enabling of terrorism.”