First on FOX: A key House committee is expanding its investigation into major Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue.
Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., who chairs the Committee on House Administration, is investigating ActBlue through accusations that it is skirting campaign donation laws that allow for rampant fraud on the site.
In a letter sent to the top officials of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Monday, Steil asked to “immediately start creating an emergency rule to require political campaigns to verify the card verification value (‘CVV’) of donors who donate online using a credit card or debit, and prohibit political campaigns from accepting online donations from gift cards or other prepaid credit cards.”
Republicans on the committee and other GOP officials have for months accused ActBlue of lax donor verification standards.
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House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil is investigating the Democratic fundraising giant that helped Vice President Kamala Harris bring in millions. (Getty Images)
“After widespread allegations of fraudulent donations reported to the FEC by ActBlue, one of the nation’s largest fundraising platforms, this emergency administration is necessary to assure the American people that ActBlue is taking the necessary steps to protect donors,” Steil wrote. .
According to the committee, whistleblowers who approached the panel in recent weeks have accused ActBlue of deliberately not using CVV numbers for donations to lower the bar for verification.
Whistleblowers have also reported the receipt of a significant amount of donations from pensioners living on a fixed income, and hundreds of donations of $2.50 from the same individuals, according to the committee.
The site has been used to raise millions of dollars for Vice President Kamala Harris as she seeks to challenge former President Trump in November.
However, as of Monday morning, the CVV number is required on the page that accepts credit card donations for the vice president.
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Steil accused ActBlue of accepting donations through prepaid debit cards and gift cards, which he said could be used to launder foreign donations. (CyberGuy.com)
CVV numbers are also required for credit card donations to some Democratic candidates’ ActBlue pages checked by Fox News Digital, although donations are also accepted through Paypal, Venmo and Google Pay, which do not require users to enter the information.
In the spring of last year, the FEC did not implement a specific rule requiring a CVV number for online political donations.
Steil’s letter also argued that the site’s acceptance of prepaid credit cards and gift cards creates “a real possibility that straw donors are making campaign contributions with funds provided by other people or unauthorized donors including foreign nationals. These issues present a serious gap in transparency and integrity of the campaign donation process, and emergency legislation is needed to correct these problems.”
The committee said whistleblowers also claimed prepaid gift cards and credit cards were used to launder campaign contributions in violation of campaign finance laws.
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It comes after similar investigations were launched by the GOP attorneys general of Virginia, Wyoming and Missouri last week.
ActBlue told Newsweek in response to the probe, “This investigation is nothing more than a partisan political attack and a scare tactic to undermine the power of small-dollar Democratic and progressive donors. We welcome the opportunity to respond to these frivolous claims.”
The FEC declined to comment when reached by Fox News Digital.
ActBlue and the Harris campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
