The basic issue, potentially a crime, of which ActBlue was accused is not screening out big donations from foreigners and foreign entities. Demanding information on that, Congressman Steil, demanded, as his office put it, “documents related to ActBlue’s donor verification policies and the potential for foreign actors to use the platform to launder illicit money into U.S. political campaigns.”

The tipoff for that was that ActBlue was processing donations that didn’t require entering the CVV number of credit cards, which could potentially mean foreign and illegal contributions were being processed. As his office put it: “ActBlue was accepting political contributions without a card verification value (CVV), Chairman Steil sent a letter demanding answers on ActBlue’s practices, questioning if they are complying with federal campaign finance laws and preventing foreign and illegal contributions.”

Commenting on that issue in October of 2024, Rep. Steil said, “We cannot allow foreign actors to influence our elections through campaign financing. The Committee’s investigation uncovered that foreign actors might be taking advantage of ActBlue’s inadequate security protocols.”

He added, “To ensure that foreign money is not being laundered through ActBlue, we are requesting a series of documents and communications related to their donor security and verification policies. Preventing foreign interference in U.S. elections has been my top priority as Chairman and this next step in our investigation is crucial to achieving that goal.”

Subpoenaing them, he wrote, “As the Committee continues to develop legislation to close loopholes in our campaign finance system and prevent foreign actors from influencing U.S. federal elections, we are issuing this subpoena to better inform our efforts to safeguard our nation’s elections.”

He then released his report on what was found in that subpoena. In the report, which found that it was only in September of 2024 that the platform started rejecting more donations, such as foreign prepaid gift cards and other potential forms of money being laundered into Democratic campaigns.

As his office put it, “Today, Committee on House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil (WI-01) announced the findings of his subpoena of ActBlue, a major Democratic fundraising platform. Documents turned over revealed that as of September 2024, ActBlue has implemented updated policies to “automatically reject donations that use foreign prepaid/gift cards, domestic gift cards, are from high-risk/sanctioned countries, and have the highest level of risk as determined,” by its solution provider, Sift.” That change in September came because Rep. Sheil ushered the SHEILD Act through Congress, which, amongst other things, forbade making donations via prepaid cards.

Steil, commenting on the matter, said that while it is good ActBle started complying, the concerning activity occurred months beforehand. He said, “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. 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.

He added, “As Chairman, I remain committed to preventing foreign funding in our elections and ensuring transparency for the American people. We must keep working to ensure that no foreign funds were illegally funneled into U.S. political campaigns during this election cycle. It is also critical that we enact lasting reforms to prevent illicit contributions in future election cycles. Advancing legislation like the SHIELD Act will permanently close these vulnerable loopholes and safeguard the integrity of our campaign finance system.”

Posting on X about the matter later in December, Steil said, “My investigation has revealed that ActBlue was not automatically rejecting suspicious donations on the platform until September. @RepJamesComer and I have called on @USTreasury to review ActBlue’s SARs. The administration continues to block our request. Unacceptable.” Watch Steil comment on the matter in Congress here: