WASHINGTON — Top Republican committee leaders have criticized a prominent Democratic fundraising executive following a New York Times report that suggests she may have misled them regarding ActBlue’s measures to prevent illegal foreign donations in U.S. elections.
On Thursday, leaders from the House Oversight, Judiciary, and Administration Committees released a joint statement expressing concern over the findings of The New York Times’ report on the Democratic fundraising platform. They questioned whether ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones intentionally provided false information to Congress during a lengthy investigation spanning over two years.
In a letter dated November 2023, Wallace-Jones assured House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) that ActBlue employed “multilayered” screenings to eliminate any potential foreign contributions.
However, The Times revealed that the law firm Covington & Burling, which advises ActBlue, warned in memos that the platform faced a “substantial risk” of receiving foreign donations due to changes in its vetting procedures.
The legal team further indicated that any attempts to hide details about the safeguards against foreign financial influence in Democratic campaigns might lead to a criminal investigation.
“The New York Times unfortunately disregarded extensive evidence we made available to them because it did not fit their desired story,” stated ActBlue spokesperson De’Andra Roberts-LaBoo in response to the report.
“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.
