Congress issued subpoenas Tuesday to compel testimony from two ActBlue witnesses, significantly escalating a probe into whether the massive online fund-raising platform allowed itself to be misused by foreigners to route improper donations to Democrats in the 2024 election.
The subpoenas issued by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, House Oversight Chairman James Comer and House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil require the two witnesses, former ActBlue Vice President of Customer Service Alyssa Twomey and a senior workflow specialist, to appear for testimony by July 15.
Both witnesses were offered a chance to voluntarily submit to transcribed interviews but their lawyer declined, citing an ongoing U.S. Justice Department investigation into ActBlue, according to correspondence obtained by Just the News.
“The Committees’ investigation has a clear — and important — legislative purpose,” a letter accompanying the subpoenas to the witnesses declared. “Congress has a specific interest in ensuring that bad actors, including foreign actors, cannot make fraudulent or illegal political donations through online fundraising platforms.”
The lawmakers said their investigators have found evidence ActBlue weakened its fraud protections during the 2024 election even though it was aware of foreign efforts to submit illicit donations through the platform.
“The Committees have found significant evidence that ActBlue had ‘a fundamentally unserious approach to fraud prevention’ during this period,” the letter stated. “For example, the Committees discovered that ActBlue weakened its fraud-prevention standards twice in 2024 despite knowledge of significant attempted fraud on the platform, including from foreign actors.
“Similarly, during your tenure,ActBlue’s training guide for new fraud-prevention staff instructed employees to ‘look for reasons to accept contributions’ rather than assess potentially fraudulent donations with a skeptical eye,” it added. “Other internal ActBlue documents show that top fraud-prevention staff, including you, have assessed that there were several mechanisms by which bad actors could evade ActBlue’s fraud-prevention systems and make illicit donations.”
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Author: Dillon B
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