The chairman of the influential House Administration Committee has shifted his investigation into one of the Democrats’ most successful political action committees to focus on whether foreigners might be laundering money into the 2024 election, Just the News reports.
Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) stated that his committee has identified individuals who assert they did not make the donations listed under their names in Federal Election Commission (FEC) reports filed by Democrat fundraising platform ActBlue. His committee, which handles election integrity issues, has “activated a full investigation.”
“My concern is that individuals are outside the jurisdiction in the United States who may be engaged in this,” Steil told the “Just the News, No Noise” television show. “We need to make sure that we’re avoiding, in particular, foreign interference in American elections in a period of time when the Biden administration and radical Democrats are happy to do the opposite.”
The Democratic Party has a history of scandals involving illegal foreign donations. During Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign, the party was implicated in accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from suspect or “straw donors” reimbursed by foreigners linked to China, leading to one of the biggest scandals of the past fifty years. Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign faced scrutiny for similar issues when an Indian-American fundraiser admitted to channeling straw donations to her campaign. In recent weeks, Congress and the attorneys general of Texas, Missouri, and Virginia have launched investigations into ActBlue following multiple reports of individuals claiming they did not make the contributions attributed to them.
ActBlue, one of the Democrats’ most prominent digital fundraising platforms, reported raising $493 million in donations just in July. Known for focusing on small-dollar donors, ActBlue did not respond to a comment request from Just the News. The organization has consistently labeled allegations against it as “dubious” and has pledged to cooperate with investigations to clear its name.
“This investigation is nothing more than a partisan political attack and scare tactic to undermine the power of Democratic and progressive small-dollar donors. We welcome the opportunity to respond to these frivolous claims,” ActBlue said in a statement after Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares announced an inquiry this month.
Last week, Steil wrote to the Federal Election Commission requesting the implementation of emergency rules to strengthen donor verification and prevent fraud by anonymous donors who use others’ names to make contributions. “Following widespread allegations of fraudulent donations being reported to the FEC by ActBlue, one of the largest fundraising platforms in the country, this emergency rule-making is necessary to reassure the American people that ActBlue is taking the necessary steps to protect its donors,” Steil told the FEC.
In his interview with Just the News, Steil said he is seeking to close two “loopholes” that could address the concerns his committee has identified: the use of anonymous gift cards for political contributions and the lack of a requirement for Card Verification Value (CVV) numbers by PACs like ActBlue when processing donations. “We continue to get evidence that individuals have come forward and are noting that there are donations in their name that they did not make,” he said. “I’m of the belief that these loopholes that we’ve identified might be the culprit.”
“The easy answer here is for the FEC to take emergency action and ban the use of anonymous gift cards in any online donation to any politician across the board, and it’s the concern that we have with ActBlue, with their weak protocols, as relates to not using a CVV number and allowing these anonymous gift cards,” he added.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced last week that ActBlue was cooperating with his investigation of the platform and had made some verification changes. “ActBlue has cooperated with our ongoing investigation,” Paxton wrote Thursday on the social media platform X. “They have changed their requirements to now include ‘CVV’ codes for donations on their platform. This is a critical change that can help prevent fraudulent donations.” His investigation began in December 2023.
Steil said his biggest concern is closing any back door where foreign money can come into influence U.S. elections. “The real big concern here is that because these donations are made online, they could be coming from anywhere across the globe. Gone are the days where individuals would engage in illegal behavior with cash. Now we can do this online,” he told the outlet.
Disclaimer: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.