Republican Leaders Threaten Contempt Against ActBlue
On Monday, the heads of three Republican House committees warned that they might hold ActBlue, a major Democratic fundraising organization, in contempt of Congress. This comes after ActBlue declined to provide over 400 documents, claiming attorney-client privilege.
Letters from Brian Steil (R-Wis.), Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), and James Comer (R-Ky.) set a deadline of Friday for ActBlue to submit communications, particularly messages from two members of its legal team who indicated that no fundraising was linked to illegal foreign contributions.
The lawmakers expressed concerns, stating, “These documents reportedly contain evidence that ActBlue accepted foreign donations, misled Congress, and retaliated against employees who spoke out about it. It seems ActBlue is trying to hide the extent of its misconduct.”
In a related development, Aaron Ting, who served as ActBlue’s interim general counsel until his resignation in February 2025, pointed out that the organization has not adequately acknowledged serious issues, specifically regarding its past handling of foreign political contributions and compliance with legal requirements related to congressional representations about these donations.
I find it interesting, though a bit troubling, that shortly after his departure, the only full-time attorney at ActBlue, Zain Ahmad, alleged in an internal Slack message that he faced retaliation for reporting internal misconduct.
These incidents initially came to light in an April report by The New York Times.
According to the committee’s letter, ActBlue had belatedly shared a log of correspondence it deem as privileged on June 5, yet it withheld Ting’s resignation letter and Ahmad’s Slack message, maintaining attorney-client privilege over these and an additional 420 documents. The committee expressed confusion about how these could possibly be privileged, stating that neither document seemed created to provide legal advice. Rather, it appeared Ting’s resignation was simply to end his employment, and Ahmad’s message was a claim of retaliation, indicative of an employer-employee dispute.
Meanwhile, ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones invoked the Fifth Amendment during her testimony before Congress on June 10, opting not to answer questions.
Since launching in 2004, ActBlue has significantly impacted Democratic fundraising efforts, amassing over $19 billion. Notably, almost $2 billion of that total was raised in the 2024 election cycle, during which internal records suggested that ActBlue had relaxed its fraud standards.
