Tipsheet

Did ActBlue Lie to Congress About Vetting Foreign Donations?

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  April 02, 2026 11:15 AM

ActBlue, the Democratic fundraising group, reportedly misled Congress when it was questioned about the organization's vetting of donations, a process meant to ensure that those donations they were not illegally coming from foreign citizens.

Here's more from The New York Times:

The letter from the chief executive, Regina Wallace-Jones, said ActBlue carried out “multilayered” screenings of contributions that helped “root out” those from overseas. In fact, the law firm found, some of the steps she had described were not always followed.

“This presents a substantial risk for ActBlue,” the law firm, Covington & Burling, wrote in one of two memos expressing legal concerns. One memo raised the specter of a criminal investigation if prosecutors believed that ActBlue had tried to conceal facts about its efforts to prevent foreign contributions.

Federal election law prohibits foreign citizens or people who are not permanent residents from donating directly to federal candidates or political action committees. Lying to or obstructing Congress is a crime.

The memos instigated a meltdown at the highest levels of ActBlue, one of the Democratic Party’s most vital financial organs.

A series of top officials resigned in quick succession. The New York Times revealed those departures last year, but a key cause of the tumult at ActBlue — the legal warnings about potentially misleading Congress over vetting foreign donations — is being reported here for the first time.

ActBlue has been in Congressional crosshairs for a while now. Back in April of last year, Congress requested documents about a slew of ActBlue staff departures that came after reports the organization received illegal donations in 2024.

As Townhall told you at the time, ActBlue reportedly changed donation standards to bring in more money, and some of that money came from foreign donors. The New York Post reported that ActBlue tweaked those fraud protocols twice:

Democratic fundraising powerhouse ActBlue changed its fraud policy twice during the 2024 campaign, implementing “more lenient” standards that let foreign and other suspicious donor money flow into US campaigns, according to internal company documents and other records exclusively obtained by The Post. 

The ActBlue fraud-prevention standards changed in April 2024 and again that September, with the relaxed guidelines allowing between 14 and 28 more fraudulent contributions per month. 

Under the updated policy, up to 6.4% of total ActBue donations that should have been rejected for fraud were missed.

Remember during the 2016 campaign, when Democrats screamed about foreign election interference? Turns out that was projection.

"And it was all so publicly obvious, with many urging the media to look into this, but until recently, the media refused to cover it. A must read from (surprisingly!) @nytimes @ShaneGoldmacher @reidepstein," Stefanik wrote on X.

 The GOP Oversight Committee vows to get answers.

Senator Bernie Moreno is calling for more investigations.

ActBlue should be shut down.

No one is shocked by this news. ActBlue was warned, and Republicans have long suspected the organization was not following the law. Now, The New York Times has blown the whistle on them, and that's a sign they must be in trouble.