Latest news with #ActBlue
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
ActBlue fires back at GOP investigation, saying it appears unconstitutional and partisan
ActBlue is fighting back against a House Republican investigation into its workings, saying the probe appears to have become an unconstitutional abuse of power to help the White House. The Democratic online fundraising platform said Monday in a letter obtained by POLITICO that it was reevaluating whether to cooperate with the ongoing congressional investigation into fraud on its platform in light of President Donald Trump's executive action to investigate potential foreign contributions on ActBlue and House Republicans' public statements supporting the White House. 'If the Committees are now working to gather information on behalf of Department of Justice prosecutors, rather than for legitimate legislative purposes, that would fundamentally transform the nature of your investigation — and violate ActBlue's constitutional rights,' ActBlue's lawyers wrote in the letter Monday to GOP Reps. Jim Jordan, James Comer and Bryan Steil. The allegations are an escalation in the conflict between House Republicans and ActBlue, the behemoth Democratic fundraising platform that has long been in GOP crosshairs as it has helped the left build a massive fundraising advantage. ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones told POLITICO last month that ActBlue believes the platform has 'nothing to hide' but needs to better communicate its role in light of the attacks. In the letter, lawyers representing ActBlue ask the congressional committees investigating the platform to clarify the purpose of their work. They argue public statements from Jordan, Comer and Steil indicate they are seeking to help the Trump Justice Department's separate investigation into ActBlue, rather than carry out congressional oversight. And they note that the "selective focus" of the investigation does not appear to include WinRed, the GOP's primary online fundraising counterpart — and thus may be intended to hurt Democrats, not provide legitimate oversight of American elections. 'The Committees' selective focus on ActBlue also suggests that the investigation may be a partisan effort directed at harming political opponents rather than gathering facts to assist in lawmaking efforts,' the letter reads. 'Such an action would raise substantial First Amendment concerns.' Spokespeople for the GOP committees investigating ActBlue did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday afternoon. A spokesperson for ActBlue also did not immediately comment. The letter comes as the Trump administration is also going after ActBlue. Trump signed a memorandum in April ordering Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate the potential use of foreign 'straw' donations in online fundraising, citing concerns about foreign influence in elections based in part on the work of the GOP-led congressional committees. ActBlue was the only platform named in the order. The memorandum calls for Bondi to report back in 90 days, which would be late July. Under federal law, only U.S. citizens and green card holders can give to campaigns and political action committees. Republicans have long argued that ActBlue, which processed billions of dollars in donations for Democrats last year, is not strict enough in weeding out potential foreign contributions. ActBlue has countered that it has processes to catch illegal donation attempts and that similar challenges exist on other platforms, including WinRed. The platform's lawyers also suggested that ActBlue's further cooperation with the congressional probes could depend on the extent of the committees' work with the Justice Department. 'In light of your public statements, it is essential that we receive more information about your agreement to coordinate the Committees' activities with the Executive Branch, so that ActBlue may properly evaluate its ongoing efforts to cooperate with the Committees,' the platform's lawyers wrote. ActBlue previously turned over thousands of pages of internal documents to the committees, some voluntarily, and then later under subpoena. The committees released an interim report in April that cited cases of fraud identified in the ActBlue documents as a means to argue that the platform had an 'unserious' approach to fraud prevention.
Politico
2 days ago
- Politics
- Politico
ActBlue fires back at GOP investigation, saying it appears unconstitutional and partisan
ActBlue is fighting back against a House Republican investigation into its workings, saying the probe appears to have become an unconstitutional abuse of power to help the White House. The Democratic online fundraising platform said Monday in a letter obtained by POLITICO that it was reevaluating whether to cooperate with the ongoing congressional investigation into fraud on its platform in light of President Donald Trump's executive action to investigate potential foreign contributions on ActBlue and House Republicans' public statements supporting the White House. 'If the Committees are now working to gather information on behalf of Department of Justice prosecutors, rather than for legitimate legislative purposes, that would fundamentally transform the nature of your investigation — and violate ActBlue's constitutional rights,' ActBlue's lawyers wrote in the letter Monday to GOP Reps. Jim Jordan, James Comer and Bryan Steil. The allegations are an escalation in the conflict between House Republicans and ActBlue, the behemoth Democratic fundraising platform that has long been in GOP crosshairs as it has helped the left build a massive fundraising advantage. ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones told POLITICO last month that ActBlue believes the platform has 'nothing to hide' but needs to better communicate its role in light of the attacks. In the letter, lawyers representing ActBlue ask the congressional committees investigating the platform to clarify the purpose of their work. They argue public statements from Jordan, Comer and Steil indicate they are seeking to help the Trump Justice Department's separate investigation into ActBlue, rather than carry out congressional oversight. And they note that the 'selective focus' of the investigation does not appear to include WinRed, the GOP's primary online fundraising counterpart — and thus may be intended to hurt Democrats, not provide legitimate oversight of American elections. 'The Committees' selective focus on ActBlue also suggests that the investigation may be a partisan effort directed at harming political opponents rather than gathering facts to assist in lawmaking efforts,' the letter reads. 'Such an action would raise substantial First Amendment concerns.' Spokespeople for the GOP committees investigating ActBlue did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday afternoon. A spokesperson for ActBlue also did not immediately comment. The letter comes as the Trump administration is also going after ActBlue. Trump signed a memorandum in April ordering Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate the potential use of foreign 'straw' donations in online fundraising, citing concerns about foreign influence in elections based in part on the work of the GOP-led congressional committees. ActBlue was the only platform named in the order. The memorandum calls for Bondi to report back in 90 days, which would be late July. Under federal law, only U.S. citizens and green card holders can give to campaigns and political action committees. Republicans have long argued that ActBlue, which processed billions of dollars in donations for Democrats last year, is not strict enough in weeding out potential foreign contributions. ActBlue has countered that it has processes to catch illegal donation attempts and that similar challenges exist on other platforms, including WinRed. The platform's lawyers also suggested that ActBlue's further cooperation with the congressional probes could depend on the extent of the committees' work with the Justice Department. 'In light of your public statements, it is essential that we receive more information about your agreement to coordinate the Committees' activities with the Executive Branch, so that ActBlue may properly evaluate its ongoing efforts to cooperate with the Committees,' the platform's lawyers wrote. ActBlue previously turned over thousands of pages of internal documents to the committees, some voluntarily, and then later under subpoena. The committees released an interim report in April that cited cases of fraud identified in the ActBlue documents as a means to argue that the platform had an 'unserious' approach to fraud prevention.
Politico
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Politico
Playbook PM: Trump hits Harvard again
Presented by THE CATCH-UP W FOR KATHY HOCHUL: 'Judge Temporarily Blocks White House From Ending Congestion Pricing,' NYT SCHOOL TIES: President Donald Trump has escalated his campaign against American universities again, with Harvard leading the way. Down to zero: A new General Services Administration letter outlines a plan for the federal government to ax $100 million of federal contracts with the university — the last tranche remaining, NYT's Stephanie Saul reports. That's just the latest federal attack on Harvard, as Trump seeks to undermine the institution's finances and bend its policies to his will. The letter from Josh Gruenbaum cites grievances from campus liberalism to affirmative action to antisemitism. Across academia: Though Trump is seeking to bar foreign students from Harvard (a move already blocked in court), the State Department's crackdown extends much further. POLITICO's Nahal Toosi scooped that the U.S. has paused all new interviews for student visa applicants as it considers imposing significantly expanded social-media vetting on them. Some Harvard international students or admits are weighing going to other countries, NBC's Jennifer Jett and Peter Guo report from Hong Kong. With Republicans' reconciliation bill taking aim at university endowments, schools are sketching out new investment strategies, WSJ's Juliet Chung reports. The other latest threat: Trump's punishment of Harvard is part of a broader assault on civil society institutions, Democrats and Democratic-led states that he sees as political enemies or wants to transform. This morning, he warned that he may block undisclosed federal funding to California over transgender girls competing in girls' school sports, per POLITICO's Amanda Friedman. He ordered local authorities to comply with a federal prohibition, seemingly in reference to a trans track-and-field athlete competing in upcoming state finals. Fighting back: NPR and a few of its member stations filed suit today over Trump's executive order freezing public media funding, per POLITICO's Gigi Ewing. The outlets argued that Trump, OMB Director Russ Vought and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had run afoul of congressional intent and unleashed 'textbook retaliation' in contravention of the First Amendment. The White House had targeted NPR and PBS for delivering what it called 'biased and partisan' journalism. Notably, the lead counsel for NPR here is GOP attorney Miguel Estrada. Reality check: Trump has singled out ActBlue, the Democratic fundraising platform, for federal scrutiny of possible illegal foreign contributions. ActBlue has admitted to more than 200 such questionable donations. Democrats fear that they're being targeted for political retaliation, and that a probe could force ActBlue to shut down. But AP's Brian Slodysko and Steve Peoples sifted through Trump's records and found that he got 1,600 similarly maybe-problematic contributions since 2020 — many through WinRed, Republicans' answer to ActBlue. The response: The White House didn't specifically address the AP's findings, but said House Republicans had 'uncovered specific evidence of potentially unlawful conduct' by ActBlue. Good Tuesday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at eokun@ 8 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW 1. VAX NOT: 'RFK Jr. cuts COVID-19 vaccine recommendation for healthy kids, pregnant women,' ABC: 'Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday announced the removal of the COVID-19 vaccine from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's immunization schedule for healthy children and pregnant women -- a move that could alter guidance for doctors as well as some insurance coverage.' 2. TRADE WARS: On Truth Social, Trump sounded another positive note about trade talks with the EU this morning, celebrating rapid initial moves even as he warned about the costs of inaction. National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told reporters that 'it's appropriate that there just be a little bit more time for the Europeans to work it out,' since the bloc is a difficult negotiating partner with so many competing constituent states. The European Commission has asked top companies to provide info on their U.S. investments, Reuters' Victoria Waldersee and Christina Amann report. Stronger signals: The Conference Board's consumer confidence index jumped in May after several consecutive hits, fueled by Trump dialing back his trade wars, per the AP. And stock markets lifted this morning on optimism about the U.S. and EU standing down from tensions. More from Bloomberg Global tariff fallout: Japan OKed a whopping $6.3 billion economic aid plan to help the country cope with Trump's tariffs, following similar moves by Canada and Spain, per the NYT. U.S. protectionism continues to exact a toll on some surprising and diverse companies, from a Brazilian electric engine maker (per Bloomberg) to a Spanish hatmaker that caters to American Orthodox Jews (per Reuters). Domestic fallout: More big retailers are considering plans to sell and go private, following in the shoes — so to speak — of Skechers, Reuters' Abigail Summerville reports. NYT's Peter Eavis has the story of a Vermont water bottle startup struggling to navigate the China tariffs. 3. RUSSIA LATEST: 'Putin and Trump agree to prisoner exchange, Russia says,' by NBC's Marlene Lenthang: ''President Trump is a man who wants results,' Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said … Lavrov did not provide further details on the exchange … If the deal is confirmed by the State Department and comes to fruition, it will be the first exchange since last month.' Nonetheless: Trump's newly stepped-up warnings to Russian President Vladimir Putin continue. 'He's playing with fire!' Trump said on Truth Social this morning, claiming that he has shielded Russia from 'REALLY BAD' things. 4. QUOTE OF THE DAY: 'I sat down with people from the White House, and they asked: 'What if we just let [Somalia] burn?'' So recounts one former State Department official to WaPo's Katharine Houreld and Mohamed Gobobe, who report that Trump's foreign aid cuts and broader pullback from Africa have raised fears of an al-Shabab resurgence. U.S. officials have become more frustrated with Somali leaders, and the al-Qaeda affiliate is on the rise again. Kenya, Ethiopia, Turkey and the Houthis are all watching closely. More from the DOGE house: Oil executive Tyler Hassen has amassed vast power as a Department of Government Efficiency embed at the Interior Department, without taking the customary steps to forestall conflicts of interest, AP's Martha Bellisle reports. Interior responded that Hassen is enacting Trump's vision. Elsewhere, DOGE's cuts are so sweeping that 32,000 people can be axed without almost anybody reporting on it: WaPo's Sabrina Malhi writes that those cuts hit AmeriCorps last month, 'but went largely unnoticed because most of the jobs were concentrated in nonprofit human services agencies that help underserved communities.' U.S. News & World Report has a big feature on 10 people hurt by federal cuts, far from D.C. 5. 2026 WATCH: Can Republicans defy historical trends and hold the House next year? Trump's team is pushing early and hard for that — wary of Democrats leading another impeachment — by raising and spending lots of money, and by working to shape primaries and avoid retirements, Axios' Alex Isenstadt reports. Meanwhile, Senate Democrats are whispering about whether progressive Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) might opt out of reelection bids, Semafor's Burgess Everett reports. The 78-year-old Markey says no way, but the 68-year-old Merkley says he'll decide and announce this quarter. 6. E-RING READING: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's controversies may have receded from the headlines in recent weeks, but rifts and dysfunction remain within his Pentagon inner circle, raising questions about his long-term future, WaPo's Dan Lamothe reports. Eric Geressy and Ricky Buria have clashed, and officials say Hegseth needs to start 'imposing order on his own staff.' DOD officially dismissed the tensions as insignificant. Where Hegseth and Trump have no issues: The Pentagon has rolled over to support Trump's plan for a giant military parade on his birthday, unlike in his first term, when DOD opposed the idea for fear of politicizing the armed forces, NYT's Helene Cooper reports. 7. THE IMMIGRATION DRAGNET: 'ICE Taps into Nationwide AI-Enabled Camera Network, Data Shows,' by 404 Media's Jason Koebler and Joseph Cox: 'Data from a license plate-scanning tool that is primarily marketed as a surveillance solution for small towns to combat crimes like car jackings or finding missing people is being used by ICE … Local police around the country are performing lookups in Flock's AI-powered automatic license plate reader (ALPR) system … giving federal law enforcement side-door access to a tool that it currently does not have a formal contract for.' For your radar: Border czar Tom Homan disclosed that he previously consulted for the immigration detention contractor GEO Group, which stands to profit from the administration's huge crackdown, WaPo's Douglas MacMillan and Aaron Schaffer report. The White House says he's following all ethics rules. Vulnerable Venezuelans: Following last week's green light from the Supreme Court's conservative supermajority, many of the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans with Temporary Protected Status fear imminent deportation, NBC's Nicole Acevedo reports. And NYT's Annie Correal has the story of one Venezuelan mother who decided to leave the U.S. rather than risk being separated from her children. 8. PARDON ME: 'Trump Pardoned Tax Cheat After Mother Attended $1 Million Dinner,' by NYT's Ken Vogel: '[W]eeks went by and no pardon was forthcoming [for Paul Walczak] … Then, [Elizabeth] Fago was invited to a $1-million-per-person fund-raising dinner last month that promised face-to-face access to Mr. Trump … Less than three weeks after she attended the dinner, Mr. Trump signed a full and unconditional pardon. It came just in the nick of time for Mr. Walczak.' TALK OF THE TOWN Cyril Ramaphosa laughed off Donald Trump's dramatic Oval Office confrontation: 'Some people have said this was an ambush. I was bemused,' the South African president said. MEDIAWATCH — WaPo rolled out new voluntary buyouts for longtime staffers and the opinion, video and copy desks, NYT's Ben Mullin scooped. The offer in the opinion section in particular emphasizes that this is the opportunity to depart for staffers who don't like Jeff Bezos' decision to transform the section in a libertarian direction. MEDIA MOVES — MSNBC is staffing up for its spinoff with Ken Dilanian as justice correspondent and Erielle Reshef as national correspondent and fill-in anchor. Dilanian previously has been justice and intelligence correspondent for NBC News. Reshef previously has been national correspondent at ABC News. … Haley Talbot is now director of editorial video strategy at Punchbowl. She previously was a reporter and producer covering Capitol Hill for CNN. … Brian Rokus is joining C-SPAN's 'Book TV' as a producer. He previously was an evening supervising producer in CNN's D.C. bureau. TRANSITIONS — Andy Byford has been named special adviser to the Amtrak Board of Directors, overseeing the redevelopment of New York Penn Station. He has been an SVP at Amtrak and is a former NYC Transit Authority head. … Mira Rapp-Hooper will be a partner at The Asia Group. She previously was senior director for East Asia and Oceania and director for Indo-Pacific strategy at the Biden NSC. … Nick Elliott is now director at L2 Data. He previously was a director at RumbleUp. … … Carl Holshouser is joining CoreWeave as VP for government affairs. He most recently was EVP and head of federal policy and government relations at TechNet. … Andrew Vontz has launched One Real Voice, a boutique firm coaching political leaders on being podcast guests and hosts. He is a Strava alum. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@ or text us on Signal here. Playbook couldn't happen without our editor Zack Stanton, deputy editor Garrett Ross and Playbook Podcast producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
Los Angeles Times
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Trump wants an investigation of Democrats' fundraising. His own campaign has issues
WASHINGTON — When President Trump directed his attorney general last month to investigate online fundraising, he cited concerns that foreigners and fraudsters were using elaborate 'schemes' and 'dummy accounts' to funnel illegal contributions to politicians and causes. Instead of calling for an expansive probe, however, the president identified just one potential target: ActBlue, the Democrats' online fundraising juggernaut, which has acknowledged receiving over 200 potentially illicit contributions last year from foreign internet addresses. Trump's announcement contained a glaring omission — his political committees also received scores of potentially problematic contributions. An Associated Press review of donations to Trump over the past five years found 1,600 contributions from donors who live abroad, have close ties to foreign interests or failed to disclose basic information, often making it difficult, if not impossible, to identify them and verify the legality of their donations Among those was $5,000 linked to a derelict building, and $5,000 from a Chinese businessman who listed a La Quinta Inn as his address. Another sizable donation — $1 million — was made by the wife of an African oil and mining magnate. It's against the law for U.S. candidates and political committees to accept contributions from foreign nationals. Laws also place strict limits on donation amounts and prohibit the laundering of contributions to get around legal caps. For the most part, such donations have been policed by campaigns and the Federal Election Commission, with only the most egregious examples being targeted by federal law enforcement. But after reclaiming the White House, Trump embarked on a campaign of retribution against his perceived enemies, launching broadsides against universities, law firms and his own former officials. If the Justice Department were to investigate ActBlue, it could imperil a key fundraising tool for Trump's political rivals before the 2026 midterm elections, when Republicans' threadbare House majority — and the president's ability to pass an agenda through Congress — will be on the line. 'This is him taking direct aim at the center of Democratic and progressive fundraising to hamstring his political opponents,' said Ezra Reese, an attorney who leads the political law division at the Elias Law Group, a leading Democratic firm that does not represent ActBlue. 'I don't think there's any question that they picked their target first. He's not even pretending.' The White House did not respond to questions about Trump's fundraising, including what sort of fraud prevention measures his committees have in place. Instead, a senior administration official pointed to the findings of a recent House Republican investigation of ActBlue that the White House alleges 'uncovered specific evidence of potentially unlawful conduct.' 'The memorandum directs the attorney general to investigate this matter broadly, and she will follow the evidence and take appropriate action as warranted,' said the official, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the matter. Neither the Justice Department nor Trump's 2024 campaign co-manager Chris LaCivita responded to requests for comment. U.S. citizens living abroad are free to donate to politicians back home. But it can be difficult even for campaigns to discern who is allowed to give and whether a person may be serving as a 'straw' donor for someone else seeking to influence U.S. elections. The AP identified only two Trump donors out of more than 200 living abroad whose U.S. citizenship was listed as 'verified' in the president's campaign finance reports. He received over 1,000 contributions from 150 donors who omitted key identifying details such as their city, state, address or country. Trump also received at least 90 contributions from people who did not give a full name, are listed as 'anonymous' or whose donations include the notation 'name not provided.' Many of these Trump donors contributed through WinRed, the Republicans' online fundraising platform that is the GOP's answer to ActBlue. Only about three dozen of these contributions were rejected, most of which came from an unknown source and were paid in cryptocurrency, campaign finance disclosures show. WinRed officials did not respond to a request for comment. 'Foreign money in our elections is a legitimate concern,' said Dan Weiner, a former Federal Election Commission attorney who is now director of the Brennan Center's elections and government program. 'What's not legitimate is to single out one political opponent and pretend the problem is limited to them.' Jiajun 'Jack' Zhang, for example, is a jet-setting Chinese businessman whose Qingdao Scaffolding Co. boasts of being one of the 'biggest manufacturers and suppliers in China' of scaffolding. In October, he used WinRed to donate $5,000 to Trump, campaign finance disclosures show. Zhang lives in China's Shandong province, according to his LinkedIn account, and is described in French business filings as a Chinese national. But his contribution to Trump lists a La Quinta Inn in Hawaiian Gardens, California, as his address, records show. The donation was made around the time that Zhang posted a photo on social media of his family visiting Disneyland, which is near the hotel. Zhang did not respond to an email seeking comment. Other potentially troublesome donations include four from unnamed donors listing an address of '999 Anonymous Dr.' There is also a series of contributions made through WinRed that listed the donor's address as a vacant building in Washington that was formerly a funeral home. The donor, identified only as 'Alex, A' on Trump's campaign finance report, gave nearly $5,000, spread across more than 40 separate transactions last year. Those types of donations tend to draw scrutiny from campaigns and regulators. Regulators and watchdogs have also long been concerned about donations from individuals with ties to foreign interests. Trump has received many such contributions, including one in December from Nnenna Peters, the wife of Benedict Peters, a Nigerian billionaire who is the founder and CEO of oil and mining businesses. Nnenna Peters, who goes by Ella, gave $1 million to Trump's inaugural committee. A naturalized citizen, Nnenna Peters — who lives in Potomac, Maryland, a tony suburb of the capital — is allowed to make campaign donations. Federal law, however, bars U.S. citizens from making contributions on behalf of a noncitizen spouse if the money is not a shared asset. For example, experts said, a husband could be prohibited from making a campaign donation using funds from a checking account solely in his wife's name. In practice, such a prohibition is hard to enforce because it is difficult to assess whether spouses are acting on their own accord or on behalf of significant others. Government watchdogs say donations like these raise the risk of an attempt to influence U.S. policy on behalf of a foreign interest. That was precisely the kind of problem Trump cited in his executive order that singled out ActBlue. Benedict Peters, as it turns out, has a lot to offer that could be of interest to Trump, who has made the extraction of natural resources a focus on his second administration. In particular, the Trump administration has sought to secure access to critical minerals that help power modern technology. Peters' Aiteo Group markets itself as one of the largest energy conglomerates in Nigeria, while his company, Bravura Holdings, purports to hold the rights to vast critical mineral deposits across Africa. His wife's donation stands out in light of her past giving: She donated exclusively to Democrats, records show, including a $66,800 contribution to Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign. 'This clearly could have come from her husband,' said Craig Holman, a registered lobbyist for Public Citizen, a Washington-based government watchdog group. 'This is something the FEC should take a very, very close look at.' Benedict and Ella Peters did not respond to requests for comment. The questionable donations fit a pattern for Trump, who has in the past exhibited indifference toward campaign finance rules and used his presidential powers to assist those facing legal trouble in such matters. In January, Trump's Justice Department dropped its case against former Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, a Nebraska Republican accused of accepting a $30,000 contribution from a Nigerian billionaire. During his first term, Trump pardoned conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza and Republican donor Michael Liberty, who were both convicted of using straw donors to evade contribution limits. He also pardoned former California Rep. Duncan Hunter, who was convicted in 2020 of stealing $250,000 from his campaign fund. Trump's political efforts have also drawn contributions from straw donors and foreigners who have been subjected to legal scrutiny. Among them is Barry Zekelman, a Canadian steel industry billionaire, who was fined $975,000 in 2022 by the Federal Election Commission for funneling $1.75 million to America First Action, Trump's official super PAC, in 2018. The contribution helped Zekelman secure a dinner with Trump at which steel tariffs were discussed. Two Soviet-born U.S. citizens, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were convicted in a straw donor scheme that funneled $325,000 to the same super PAC in the runup to Trump's losing 2020 reelection campaign. Jesse Benton, a Republican political operative, was convicted in 2022 of serving as a straw donor for a Russian businessman who contributed $25,000 to Trump's 2016 campaign. Democrats say Trump's focus on ActBlue is a lot to stomach in light of Trump's acceptance of questionable donations and his seeming lack of interest in enforcing campaign finance laws more generally. They noted that Trump in February fired a commissioner at the Federal Election Commission. The firing, followed by the resignation of a Republican commissioner, has denied the agency the quorum necessary to enforce campaign finance laws and regulations. 'It's telling that while Trump and his allies attack grassroots-funded platforms like ours, their own campaigns have welcomed money from questionable sources,' ActBlue spokesperson Megan Hughes said. Republicans counter that there is well-founded reason to investigate the Democratic platform, which eased some fraud detection protocols in 2024 before the presidential election. There is, however, a political upside to investigating ActBlue. The platform has proved more successful than WinRed, the Republican platform designed to imitate it, which took in less than half of the $3.8 billion that ActBlue raised during the 2024 election cycle. ActBlue representatives declined to say whether they have been contacted by the Justice Department. ActBlue is expected to battle any investigation. It took a different approach when a Republican-led congressional committee launched an investigation in 2023. That committee's findings turned out to be the basis for some of the allegations cited by Trump in his executive order. Democrats, meanwhile, are preparing for the worst. 'There is a pervasive fear that ActBlue could cease to exist,' said Matt Hodges, a veteran Democratic operative who served as the director of engineering for Joe Biden's 2020 campaign. 'That's the worst fear people have — that this will escalate or drain legal resources that hinder their ability to operate.' He predicted that the Democrats could lose more than $10 million in the short term if ActBlue were forced to shut down. That has led some Democrats to begin thinking about alternatives, but they acknowledged it might be too late to create something as successful as ActBlue with the midterms around the corner. Slodysko and Peoples write for the Associated Press. Peoples reported from New York.
Toronto Star
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Toronto Star
Trump wants an investigation of Democrats' fundraising. His own campaign has issues
WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Donald Trump directed his attorney general last month to investigate online fundraising, he cited concerns that foreigners and fraudsters were using elaborate 'schemes' and 'dummy accounts' to funnel illegal contributions to politicians and causes. Instead of calling for an expansive probe, however, the president identified just one potential target: ActBlue, the Democrats' online fundraising juggernaut, which has acknowledged receiving over 200 potentially illicit contributions last year from foreign internet addresses.
