Republicans on Capitol Hill Wednesday called on ActBlue—the primary fundraising platform for the Democratic Party and thousands of progressive candidates nationwide—to release its records after alleging that recent transactions may suggest the laundering of funds from terrorists. Rep. Darrell Issa (D-CA) raised “credible allegations” of terrorism-linked financing in a letter to the Treasury Department, challenging its executives to explain whether they were aware that ActBlue allegedly accepted donations from third-party groups tied to U.S.-sanctioned terrorists.
“I write to raise concerns regarding the progressive fundraising organization ActBlue – as well as its charitable arm ActBlue Charities – and credible allegations of the provision of fundraising services and payment processing for terror-linked organizations and nonprofits,” Issa said of the budding potential scandal ignored during the Biden-Harris administration. “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.”
Issa, the vice chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, specifically pointed out the connections between ActBlue and the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, as well as the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights. The latter organization receives support from left-wing billionaire George Soros. “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 wrote in the letter, obtained by the New York Post Wednesday and first reported by the Free Press.
“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,” he noted further. In addition to enabling alleged terrorism, Issa claimed that collaboration between ActBlue and the two entities “may also constitute money-laundering crimes.”
“In addition, the flagrant inability of progressive groups to address the appearance of skirting a full range of our laws — or call out the evils of Hamas and the BDS movement — raises critical questions if the activities and coalition building of ActBlue and ActBlue Charities are in reality part of a wider commitment to financing and facilitating attacks on Israel and Jewish people in America and around the globe,” he said.
A senior aide to a California Republican told The Post that the letter signaled the start of a full investigation into ActBlue and ActBlue Charities after previous efforts had been blocked by the Biden administration. Issa’s letter comes just days after House Republicans renewed their request for data from the Treasury Department to determine whether fraudulent campaign contributions were made by “dummy” small-dollar donors to the platform.
Until last year, ActBlue did not require donors to enter their Card Verification Values (CVVs) when contributing online—a practice that, according to a letter from Reps. James Comer (R-Ky.), Bryan Steil (R-Wis.), and Nick Langworthy (R-NY) sent to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday, potentially exposed donors to identity theft and fraud.