House GOP issues new subpoenas, ramping up ActBlue investigation
The subpoenas are an attempt to force cooperation as ActBlue has pushed back on the congressional investigation, questioning its intentions and constitutionality after the White House launched a similar probe.
Reps. James Comer (R-Ky.), Bryan Steil (R-Wisc.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who lead the committees investigating ActBlue, issued the subpoenas Wednesday to compel a current and a former employee to testify about the platform's fraud prevention policies.
The employees being subpoenaed had previously pushed back against voluntarily appearing before the committee, citing the White House's investigation, and ActBlue sent the committee a defiant letter earlier this month criticizing the investigation as partisan. In subpoenaing the employees, the GOP lawmakers rejected ActBlue's argument that the congressional investigation is being conducted at the behest of the White House probe.
ActBlue had slammed the congressional investigations in a letter this month as a 'partisan effort directed at harming political opponents rather than gathering facts to assist in lawmaking efforts.' The platform and its Democratic defenders have argued that any probe into foreign donations and online fundraising should also include WinRed, the largest Republican fundraising platform.
Those Democratic complaints grew louder after President Donald Trump in April ordered the Justice Department to investigate foreign straw donations in online fundraising, citing in part the work done by the GOP-led congressional committees. That investigation is expected to carry into the fall — and ActBlue was the only company named in Trump's order.
In the new subpoenas, however, the GOP lawmakers argue the committee is operating well within its rights, and that testimony from ActBlue could inform future campaign finance legislation. They say the House investigation is distinct from the Trump-ordered probe into the platform and that their committees have not provided any non-public information to the Justice Department.
The lawmakers also rejected ActBlue's argument that the Constitution protects it from cooperation with the probe.
'Congress is free to choose how to conduct oversight, including which entities to examine and in what manner. A Congressional committee's decision to examine one entity and not another does not violate the Equal Protection Clause,' one of the subpoenas reads.
In a statement, ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones assailed the subpoenas as 'political theater' that would 'give Shakespeare a run for his money.'
'The Republican-led committees have also not addressed ActBlue's legitimate concerns about the partisan and parallel inquiries by separate branches of the government being waged against President Trump's and MAGA Republicans' political opponents,' Wallace-Jones said.
ActBlue previously provided documents to the GOP committees, some voluntarily and some under subpoena. The congressional committees asked for voluntary interviews with ActBlue employees in April, according to the latest subpoenas, but the employees balked, citing in part the Justice Department probe.
Republicans have frequently leveraged their committee gavels this Congress to go after Democratic officials, including mayors and governors. The House Oversight Committee is also investigating former President Joe Biden's mental acuity while in the White House, amid a similar probe by the Trump administration. Comer has issued a subpoena to Biden's physician and asked a number of former top White House aides to sit down with his panel.
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