House Republicans Summon ActBlue Attorney Over Foreign Donation Concerns

House Republicans are escalating their investigation into ActBlue, the primary fundraising platform for Democratic campaigns, by summoning attorney Ronald Machen for a closed-door interview. Machen is expected to appear before investigators before Oct. 9.

In a letter sent to Machen, Republican committee chairs Jim Jordan (House Judiciary Committee), Bryan Steil (Committee on House Administration), and James Comer (House Oversight Committee) stated that information previously provided by Machen appears to contradict other data collected concerning ActBlue's verification standards for U.S. donors. The investigation centers on allegations that the platform may have facilitated foreign donations.

Republicans have long accused ActBlue of having lax verification standards. A recent report, first published by Fox News Digital, indicated that employees may have approved donations despite questions about their origins. A key point of contention is ActBlue's passport number verification process, which reportedly only requires the correct number of characters for a U.S. passport, rather than a validated code, for a donation to be accepted.

The letter also references a 2024 review by Dana Remus, former White House Counsel, which allegedly found a "substantial risk that some of the funds" raised by ActBlue could have come from foreign nationals. Remus' review reportedly noted that passport checks were not always conducted and were never performed when donations were made through third-party platforms like Apple Pay or PayPal.

Republican lawmakers claim Machen's prior statements to Congress conceded that ActBlue processed donations with foreign indicators despite failing to identify a valid passport number or other eligibility criteria. They further allege that Machen defended ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones's prior statements to Congress, asserting the platform's vetting policy was "as close to 100 percent as it could be."

However, the committee chairs contend that documents provided to them undermine this assertion. They state that if a donor lacked a U.S. passport or address, an ActBlue employee could determine an "alternative method of verifying the [donor’s] citizenship." This, according to the letter, allowed employees to use placeholders like "ACTBLUEXX" in the passport number field, enabling the acceptance of subsequent contributions without a verified U.S. passport number.

Additionally, the letter criticizes Machen's review for being limited to 2023, thus excluding potentially relevant data from the 2024 election cycle. Documents obtained by the committees reportedly show that ActBlue relaxed its vetting practices twice in 2024, information not captured by Machen's review.

ActBlue has denied any wrongdoing, dismissing the Republicans' findings as a political stunt. In a statement, the organization said the GOP's campaign against ActBlue is not based on facts but on an effort to "silence organizations they believe threaten their agenda."