John Solomon
Congress Issued calls On Wednesday, to force the testimonies of two Aktblue witnesses, significantly escalating the probe or a huge platform for obtaining online funds allowed the improper exploit by foreigners in order to obtain improper donations for democrats in the 2024 elections.
Chairman of the Jim Jordan (in the photo above, chairman of House) chairman House House, James Comer (in the photo above, left) and chairman of the home administration Bryan Steil (in the photo above, on the right) require two witnesses, former vice president for Actblue work flow that appeared on Testimonia on July 15.
Both witnesses were offered a chance to voluntarily undergo transcription of interviews, but their lawyer refused, citing the ongoing investigation of justice in the US in the case of ActBlue, in accordance with the correspondence obtained by Only a message.
“The investigation of committees has a clear and important – legislative goal”, a letter accompanying the call to call witnesses. “Congress is particularly interested in providing bad actors, including foreign actors, they cannot transfer fraudulent or illegal political donations via online funds.”
The legislators said that their investigators found evidence that Actblue weakened the protection of fraud during the elections in 2024, despite the fact that he was aware of foreign efforts to present illegal donations through the platform.
“The committees have found significant evidence that Actblue had a” essentially unlikely approach to preventing fraud “during this period”, “, for example, committees discovered that Actblue weakened their standards of fraud prevention twice in 2024, despite knowledge of significant attempts to fraud on the platform, including foreign actors.
“Similarly, during the term, the ActBlue training guide for new staff preventing fraud he instructed employees to” seek reasons to accept the contribution “instead of assessing potentially false donations with a skeptical eye,” he added. “Other internal documents of Aktblue show that the most important staff preventing fraud, including you, assessed that there were several mechanisms, thanks to which Bad actors could avoid ActBlue fraud and make illegal donations. “
Actblue responded to the news about the call on Wednesday afternoon, saying that although they went to individual witnesses, and not to the group, it was feared that the congress probe was contaminated with bias.
“This letter was not sent to ActBlue and we still have not received a direct response from committees, but based on what is contained in this letter, it does not solve the very serious concerns of Actblue regarding partisan, parallel and cooperation from separate government units and the policy of the political opposition of the president,” said the group in a statement sent to the statement that were sent to the statement that were sent to the statement that were sent to the statement that were sent to the statement that were sent to the statement that were sent to the statement that were sent to the statement that were sent to the statement that were sent to the statement that were sent. Only a message.
Committees have I studied Aktblue on loose security measures And whether these loans in security allowed foreign entities to transfer American political campaigns, which is illegal.
In October, Steil and Senator Ron Johnson, Wisconsin Republican colleague, wrote to the secretary of the treasury Janet Yellen, director of the FBI Christopher Wray and director of the National Intelligence Avril Haines about the fears that four opponents of the US could pass through the platform.
“We write to you to collect urgent concern about potential illegal financing of elections by foreign entities,” legislators wrote Yellen in a letter from Thursday. “Char studied the claims that foreign actors, primarily from Iran, Russia, Venezuela and China, can use ActBlue to laundering illegal money in political campaigns in the USA.”
They also said: “Our investigation indicated that actors could use existing American donors by making donations without their knowledge.”
Legislators specially demanded access to everyone Suspicious activity reports (SARS) related to the transfer of money by the platform for obtaining funds generated by each American financial institution as part of their actions that counteract money laundering. Congress has poured these SARS in recent days after gaining access to them under the Trump administration.
Actblue admitted to Congress that he had it updated the principle of verification of the donor Automatic rejection of donations that “use foreign gift/gift cards, national gift cards, come from high risk/sanctioned countries and have the highest risk level according to the established” by their supplier of Sift solutions.
The amendment took place only three days after Steil introduced the Act on the protected service of electronic donations (shield), September 6, 2024, to ensure that foreign money remained beyond obtaining online political funds. Before the change, said Steil, donations transferred to foreign gift cards were not automatically rejected by Actblue before the change, Only a message Reported.
Actblue has repeatedly denied any offenses and says that there is fully cooperation with ongoing investigations.
“Democratic and progressive campaigns have trusted twenty years of achieving innovations and reliability Actblue, which are to provide during large moments of obtaining funds,” company company he said in a statement In June 2024, celebrating the 20th anniversary in business.
According to internal documents of the Company checked by committees during the campaign cycle in 2024, ActBlue has issued fresh standards encouraging employees to “search for reasons to accept contributions.” Before changing the rules, the platform already did not require CVV numbers In the case of credit card transactions, the risk of fraud.
The company’s internal assessment has determined that the change of policy led to “from 14 to 28 additional fraudulent contributions each month”, committees say.
The documents also show that the platform began to monitor potential fraudulent donations from several foreign sources, including hundreds of donations from Brazil, Colombia, India, Iraq, the Philippines and Saudi Arabia and other countries.
Legislators and Trump asked the state to examine ActBlue for possible criminal proceedings.
“Federal law (52 USC 30121 and 30122), she severely prohibits the political contribution in the name of another person, as well as contributions of foreigners,” wrote Trump in a note last month asking for a state. “Regardless of these provisions designed to protect American democracy, press reports and investigations by congress committees generated extremely disturbing evidence that the online platforms for obtaining funds are willing participants in the field of washing excessive and prohibited contribution for political candidates and committees.”
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John Solomon is an award -winning investigator journalist, author and entrepreneur of digital media, who is the general director and the editor of the boss only. Before establishing only messages, Solomon played key roles of reports and executive in some of the most essential American journalistic institutions, such as Associated Press, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Newsweek, The Daily Beast and The Hill.
