Actblue is fighting back against a Republican investigation into the work, saying the probe appears to be an unconstitutional abuse of power to help the White House.
The democratic online fundraising platform said Monday it is reassessing whether President Donald Trump will cooperate in an ongoing Congressional investigation into fraud on the platform in light of President Donald Trump’s enforcement actions to investigate potential foreign contributions in public statements from House Republicans in support of the White House.
“If the committee is currently working to gather information on behalf of the Department of Justice prosecutors rather than legitimate legislative purposes, it fundamentally changes the nature of your investigation and violates Act Blue’s constitutional rights.”
The allegations are an escalation of the conflict between House Republicans and ActBlue, a huge democratic fundraising platform that has long been in the GOP’s crosshairs as it helps the left increase its large-scale fundraising advantage. ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones I spoke to Politico last month ActBlue believes that the platform has “nothing to hide,” but it needs to better communicate its role in light of the attack.
In the letter, the lawyers representing Actblue ask the Congressional Committee examining the platform to clarify the purpose of their work. They argue that official statements from Jordan, Comer and Steil show that they are trying to support separate investigations into the Trump Justice Department’s Actblue rather than overseeing Congress.
And they note that the “selective focus” of the study does not appear to include WINRED, the GOP’s major online funding counterpart.
“The committee’s selective focus on ActBlue also suggests that the investigation could be a partisan effort aimed at hurting political adversaries rather than gathering facts to support legal efforts,” the letter reads. “Such measures will raise considerable First Amendment concerns.”
A spokesmos for the GOP committee investigating ActBlue did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday afternoon. The ActBlue spokesman also did not immediately comment.
This letter comes as the Trump administration moves on after Act Blue. Trump I signed a memorandum in April We order Attorney General PAM Bondi to investigate the potential use of foreign “straw” contributions in online funding, citing concerns about the foreign impacts in elections, in part based on the work of the GOP-led Parliamentary Committee. ActBlue was the only platform named in order. The memorandum requires Bondi to report it in 90 days. This is late July.
Under federal law, only US citizens and green cardholders can give to the Campaign and Political Action Committee. Republicans have long argued that ActBlue, which processed billions of dollars in donations to Democrats last year, is not strict enough to eliminate potential foreign contributions. ActBlue countered that there is a process of catching illegal donation attempts and similar challenges exist on other platforms, including WINED.
The platform’s lawyers also suggested that Actblue’s further cooperation with Congressional probes could depend on the scope of the committee’s cooperation with the Department of Justice.
“In light of your official statement, it is essential to receive more information about your agreement to coordinate the activities of the committee with the administrative department, so ActBlue can properly evaluate its ongoing efforts to work with the committee,” the platform’s attorney wrote.
ActBlue previously handed over thousands of pages of internal documents to the committee. The committee was released A preliminary report for April The case of fraud identified in the ActBlue document was cited as a way to argue that the platform has a “unstable” approach to fraud prevention.
