Republican lawmakers on Monday threatened contempt of Congress charges against ActBlue, the Democratic fundraising juggernaut plagued by a scandal involving alleged illegal foreign donations.
The GOP chairs of the House Oversight and Government Reform, Judiciary and Administration committees wrote to ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones and ordered her to turn over hundreds of pages of documents.
Republicans are seeking material related to alleged fundraising violations as well as resignation letters that are related to “misconduct at ActBlue, whistleblower retaliation, and mass departures on ActBlue’s legal team.”
Republicans subpoenaed the documents nearly a year ago but, according to lawmakers, the organization has withheld hundreds of key pages.
“These documents reportedly contain evidence that ActBlue accepted foreign donations, misled Congress, and then retaliated against an employee who spoke up about it. ActBlue appears to be withholding these documents from the Committees in an attempt to cover up the scope and duration of its misconduct,” the Republican committee chairs said.
Republicans began investigating ActBlue in 2023 over its donor verification policies, which Republicans accuse of letting foreigners funnel cash into U.S. Democrats’ campaigns.
The fundraising powerhouse raised $3.5 billion in the 2024 campaign cycle, more than double the money raised by the GOP’s WinRed organization.
The GOP-led House ramped up its investigation into ActBlue following a New York Times report earlier this year that ActBlue’s outside legal team warned the organization that it did not always follow the correct protocol for avoiding fraudulent campaign donations from foreigners, and that it may have misled Congress about the matter.
ActBlue has claimed attorney-client privilege over the documents.
They include former ActBlue’s interim general counsel Aaron Ting’s resignation letter and an internal memo in which the organization’s former legal counsel alleged that he was retaliated against “for blowing the whistle on internal misconduct at ActBlue.”
Ms. Wallace-Jones testified before the House Administration Committee on June 10 but refused to answer questions by asserting her Fifth Amendment right to remain silent.
Ms. Wallace-Joes said ActBlue is under a political attack from the Trump administration. The organization took in $3.5 billion in contributions in 2024, she said, and the average donation was $50 or less.
ActBlue officials said fewer than 1% of donations came from abroad, and those include donations from U.S. citizens living outside the country.
