House probes how Democrats’ biggest fundraising effort left open to fraud in 2024

House investigators say the Democratic Party’s largest fundraising platform may have accepted fraudulent donations due to lax security that was not corrected until September.

ActBlue, which raises billions of dollars for Democratic candidates, told lawmakers it has only recently implemented policies to automatically reject high-risk gift card donations, including those from foreigners.

The platform also had a practice of accepting some credit card donations without requiring a three-digit security code known as a card verification value or CVV.

ActBlue implemented additional security measures, organization officials told Congress last week, but those measures were not in place until Sept. 9, which was nearly the end of the 2024 election cycle.

“While this is a positive step forward, there is still more work to be done to ensure our campaign finance system is fully protected from fraud and unlawful foreign interference,” said House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, Wisconsin Republican. “The documents provided to the Committee also confirm that ActBlue still accepted these concerning payment methods in July, a period when Democrats raised a record number of campaign money before implementing these safeguards.”

House Republicans leading the probe say the lack of security left ActBlue open to illegal straw donations from foreigners.

Mr. Steil issued a subpoena in October seeking ActBlue documents and communications related to the platform’s donor verification policies “and the potential for foreign actors, primarily from Iran, Russia, Venezuela and China, to use ActBlue to launder illicit money into U.S. political campaigns.”

ActBlue is arguably the largest political fundraising platform in existence.

According to the platform website, since its inception in 2004, ActBlue has raised more than $13.6 billion for Democrat candidates through small-dollar donors.

Reports of fraud on the platform triggered the GOP-led House inquiry.

Wisconsin Republican Strategist Mark Block filed a lawsuit claiming his identity was stolen to make nearly 400 fraudulent donations to Democratic candidates through ActBlue, including the presidential campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris. The donations, amounting to a total of nearly $900, were small enough to escape Federal Election Commission requirements for registering personal donor information.

Mr. Steil’s panel flagged thousands of potentially fraudulent donations spanning 19 states.

ActBlue transactions have also triggered Treasury Department scrutiny, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer told lawmakers earlier this year. Treasury officials, he said in a confidential October memo obtained by The Washington Times, are “reviewing hundreds of potentially responsive records” related to credit card or debit card fraud, wire transfer fraud, identity theft, and more.

ActBlue officials defended their security provisions, which include requiring foreign donations to be accompanied by a U.S. passport number and other verification steps.

“For donors, our processes and procedures foster trust that ActBlue’s platform for contributions is safe and secure; for candidates and committees, they promote compliance with legal obligations.”

ActBlue President Regina Wallace-Jones told lawmakers in a letter: “Our approach is multilayered, with checks and confirmations occurring throughout the donation process to verify donors and donor information. These measures, which include compliance measures, technological tools, and manual reviews, help to ensure the identity of donors, root out potential foreign contributions, and protect donors from financial fraud.”

Mr. Steil introduced legislation in September that would ban ActBlue and other political committees from accepting debit or credit card donations without a CVV number and billing address. It would also prohibit donations from prepaid cards and prohibit “aiding and abetting” donations in another person’s name.