First appeared on FOX: A key House committee is expanding its investigation into ActBlue, a major Democratic fundraising platform.
Rep. Brian Steil (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Administration Committee, is investigating ActBlue amid accusations that it circumvents campaign finance laws and allows rampant fraud on the site.
In a letter to Federal Election Commission (FEC) leaders on Monday, Steele called on them to “immediately begin emergency rulemaking to require political campaigns to verify the card verification numbers (CVVs) of donors who donate online using credit or debit cards and to prohibit political campaigns from accepting online donations made with gift cards or other prepaid credit cards.”
Republicans on the committee and other GOP leaders have criticized ActBlue for months for its lax donor verification standards.
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House Administration Committee Chairman Brian Steele is investigating a Democratic fundraising giant that helped Vice President Kamala Harris raise millions of dollars. (Getty Images)
“Following widespread reports to the FEC of alleged fraudulent donations by ActBlue, one of the nation’s largest fundraising platforms, this emergency rulemaking is necessary to reassure the American public that ActBlue is taking the necessary steps to protect its donors,” Steele wrote.
According to the committee, whistleblowers who contacted it in recent weeks have accused ActBlue of deliberately avoiding using CVV numbers on donations in order to lower the verification bar.
According to the committee, whistleblowers also reported receiving a significant number of donations from retirees living on fixed incomes, as well as hundreds of donations of $2.50 each from the same person.
The site has been used to raise millions of dollars for Vice President Kamala Harris, who is seeking to face former President Trump in November.
However, as of Monday morning, pages accepting credit card donations to the vice president still required the CVV number.
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Steele accused ActBlue of accepting donations via prepaid debit and gift cards, which could be used to launder donations from overseas. (CyberGuy.com)
Credit card donations to ActBlue pages for Democratic congressional candidates viewed by Fox News Digital also required a CVV number, but donations were also accepted via Paypal, Venmo and Google Pay without requiring users to enter that information.
However, as of last spring, the FEC had not imposed specific rules requiring CVV numbers for online political donations.
Steele’s letter also argued that the site’s acceptance of prepaid credit cards and gift cards “makes it highly likely that dummy donors are making campaign contributions with funds provided by illegitimate donors, including strangers and foreign nationals. These problems create serious loopholes in the transparency and integrity of the campaign contribution process and require emergency rulemaking to correct these problems.”
The committee said whistleblowers have alleged that prepaid gift cards and credit cards are being used to launder campaign funds in violation of campaign finance laws.
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This comes after Republican attorneys general in Virginia, Wyoming and Missouri launched similar investigations last week.
ActBlue said: Newsweek In response to these investigations, we said, “This investigation is nothing more than a partisan political attack and scare tactic designed to weaken the power of Democrats and progressive small donors. We welcome the opportunity to refute these baseless allegations.”
The FEC declined to comment when contacted by Fox News Digital.
ActBlue and the Harris campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
