2026-08-13T09:00:29.883Z / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
去年某个周六上午，阿克布卢（ActBlue）的多名律师和高管齐聚视频会议，与该筹款平台的总裁兼首席执行官讨论一件敏感事宜。
一家外部律师事务所的审查引发了疑问：该组织是否始终如一地采取了措施，阻止非法外国捐款——而里贾纳·华莱士-琼斯此前曾向国会表示，他们已经做到了这一点。
有人敦促华莱士-琼斯向阿克布卢董事会通报这一潜在的法律风险。但据熟悉此次讨论的人士透露，华莱士-琼斯断然拒绝了这个提议。
“我绝不会让你们拿着这些信息去找董事会，”她说道，据一位参会者回忆。
这次对峙导致阿克布卢几名关键员工迅速离职，而一年多后的今天，这一系列事件仍在影响着民主党竞选活动。这也让国会山的共和党调查重获动力，他们一直试图将阿克蓝描绘成外国资金的输送渠道。
在那些担忧如何对冲共和党联盟大量支出的全国民主党人士中，有人暗自担忧阿克布卢的未来，以及该平台领导人的管理风格。
近年来任何向民主党候选人在线捐款的人，大概率都是通过阿克布卢完成的。在这个共和党联盟团体有望在支出上超过民主党对手的中期选举周期中，阿克布卢一旦出现任何动荡，都会影响到数千个依赖小额捐款维持运营的民主党竞选活动。
“对于在民主党生态系统中工作的人来说，这给我们敲响了警钟：我们有一个实际上大到不能倒的供应商，”一位鼓励竞选活动使用更多筹款平台的民主党策略师说道。“我们不得不正视这个问题。”
阿克布卢为拒绝接受采访的华莱士-琼斯进行了辩护，并驳斥了有关她处理与律师会面方式的描述。该组织的发言人德安德拉·罗伯茨·拉布在一份声明中表示，首席执行官在其任期内一直“向董事会通报所有重大更新”。
“我在2023年受聘，负责发展这个以使命为导向、以技术为核心的组织，以支持更多候选人、事业和小额捐款人，”华莱士-琼斯在阿克布卢提供的一份声明中说道。“我们已经将这个单一服务的初创公司，发展成为一个多元化的技术平台，为竞选活动提供远超筹款范畴的运营支持。这种规模的变革并不容易，但保护小额民主的完整性同样不易。”
前总统唐纳德·特朗普去年下令司法部调查阿克布卢是否允许非法稻草人捐款和外国捐款渗透美国选举。据一位知情人士透露，去年10月，美国两个检察官办公室的联邦检察官就阿克布卢的运营展开了初步调查。三个由共和党主导的国会委员会多年来一直在调查该组织，但并未公开兑现升级调查的威胁。
“这家机构传出了不少风声。我认为我们需要查明是否真的存在问题，”参与调查阿克布卢的委员会成员、共和党众议员汤姆·麦克林托克（加州）告诉CNN。
前阿克布卢员工和华盛顿民主党生态系统内部人士也表示，华莱士-琼斯的行事风格和管理方式为共和党提供了口实。国会山对阿克布卢的三年调查似乎即将收尾，直到《纽约时报》率先披露了华莱士-琼斯可能存在管理不善的消息。
曾在阿克布卢工作并匿名接受CNN采访的批评人士称，华莱士-琼斯去年视频会议上的反应是其管理风格的缩影。他们描述称，工作氛围中，部分员工会遭到嘲笑，或者他们的观点会被首席执行官直接驳回，这位CEO有时会在会议上用第三人称指代自己。
“她会说类似‘别太较真法律了，这没问题的’之类的话，”一位获准坦诚谈论该组织内部运作的前员工说道。
目前阿克布卢及其任何现任或前任员工均未被指控存在不当行为。民主党人普遍谴责共和党主导的调查是出于政治动机的攻击。民主党议员和策略师认为，这些调查实际上是为了在距离现在不到三个月的中期选举前破坏民主党阵营。
“很多人只是想事后诸葛亮，”经营数字筹款和广告公司Authentic的民主党策略师迈克·内利斯说道。“共和党人无论如何都会大做文章。里贾纳说过什么、做过什么，都无关紧要。这完全是出于政治动机。”
阿克布卢是民主党小额筹款的核心引擎，已有超过2万个竞选活动和组织使用该平台处理在线捐款。其运营收入来自交易手续费和捐款人自愿附加的、用于资助平台运营成本的“小费”。据其官网数据，自2004年以来，该平台已处理超过190亿美元的捐款。
阿克布卢的一键捐款功能是其标志性优势。多年来，捐款人可将信用卡信息存储在平台上，只需点击一次即可轻松向任何关联的竞选活动或组织捐款。
联邦法律规定，外国国民为阻止外国影响美国选举而向美国候选人捐款属于违法行为。不过，居住在海外的美国公民可以向国内的政治家捐款。
2023年起，国会山的共和党人援引福克斯新闻等媒体的报道，开始质疑阿克布卢在向民主党输送捐款时，如何进行审核以防范欺诈。
“我们必须无可指摘，因为他们总会找理由调查民主党，”一位参议院竞选团队的民主党策略师说道。“无论你给他们提供什么把柄，哪怕他们采取这种手段不公平，那也终究是把柄。”
对于一些对华莱士-琼斯的领导感到不满的工作人员来说，2025年2月的视频会议对峙成为了转折点。数天内，多名员工相继离职。
这场争议围绕着阿克布卢当时的外部律所高盛·博林律师事务所（Covington & Burling）出具的备忘录展开，这些备忘录警告称，华莱士-琼斯2023年致国会的一封信中，有关该平台如何审核外国地址捐款的部分内容可能并不准确。
华莱士-琼斯在信中称，阿克布卢会要求外国地址捐款的捐款人提供美国护照号码。高盛·博林在2025年2月18日的一份被CNN查看过的备忘录中指出，这一要求适用于信用卡捐款，但对于通过PayPal或Venmo等第三方平台进行的捐款，并不一定遵循这一做法。
此外，高盛·博林还警告称，阿克布卢对外国地址捐款的审核力度并未达到负责监督总统和国会选举捐款的联邦选举委员会（FEC）的要求。
“这造成了重大风险，部分收到的资金可能来自外国国民的不当捐款，”律师们总结道。
此次会议在高盛·博林的备忘录送达四天后召开，据知情人士透露，此次会议旨在敦促华莱士-琼斯针对律所提出的问题采取行动。
周六会议结束两天后，时任阿克布卢最高内部律师的亚伦·丁辞职。
“我担心领导层并未完全承诺，与董事会坦诚讨论我们最紧迫担忧的严重性：阿克布卢过去筛查海外政治捐款的合规做法，以及其过去就外国捐款等相关事项向国会作出的表述，”他在CNN审阅过的辞职信中写道。
高盛·博林的官员未回复CNN的置评请求。该律所不再为阿克布卢服务，而阿克布卢的领导层公开批评了该律所。
会议结束几天后，阿克布卢的另一名内部律师扎因·艾哈迈德将律所的备忘录和其他内部文件转发给了董事会成员和阿克布卢高管，随后突然请假。
阿克布卢的代表辩称，华莱士-琼斯2023年致国会的原始信件是准确的，该组织并未误导议员。
在给CNN的一份声明中，阿克布卢的全体董事会成员确认支持华莱士-琼斯，称她“在工作的各个方面都展现出了卓越的领导能力”，让董事会“密切了解不断变化的风险”，并“组建了一支极具能力的法律和合规团队，确保我们以最高的问责标准运营”。
在高盛·博林发出警告数月后的2025年6月，阿克布卢的现任外部律所在致国会的一封信中表示，该组织已实施新措施，防范不当的外国捐款。阿克布卢已选择禁止任何带有外国邮寄地址或IP地址的捐款，即使是那些合法有权向国内候选人捐款的海外美国公民也不例外。
华莱士-琼斯于2023年1月出任阿克布卢首席执行官，此前曾在包括eBay、Facebook和雅虎在内的多家科技公司担任高管职位。这位斯坦福大学培养的工程师也积极参与政治，曾担任加州东帕洛阿尔托市议会成员，并在新冠疫情期间担任该市市长。
华莱士-琼斯致力于将该组织从一家筹款供应商，转型为符合她愿景的、为候选人提供“一站式竞选服务”的平台。
前民主党全国委员会主席杰米·哈里森表示，华莱士-琼斯领导下的创新——比如推出网站建设工具——让参选下级职位的候选人更容易开展竞选活动。“我非常支持她所做的工作，”他在采访中说道。
哈里森表示，他认为对华莱士-琼斯的批评是不公平的。“即使在民主党阵营内部，作为一名女性和少数族裔女性，有时也会遭遇特定的偏见。”
在华莱士-琼斯的任期内，阿克布卢的支出大幅增长，本选举周期的运营支出已超过9300万美元，远超2022年整个中期选举周期约6700万美元的支出，联邦选举委员会记录显示。
法律费用也大幅上涨，因为该组织和华莱士-琼斯本人聘请了大量律师进行辩护。根据联邦选举委员会的记录，2025年1月1日至2026年5月31日这17个月内，阿克布卢在“法律咨询”上的支出已超过1700万美元。
“我们致力于维护我们的权利，以及所有与本届政府持不同政见的美国人的权利，”华莱士-琼斯在谈到不断攀升的法律费用时说道。“战斗的一部分就是聘请最优秀的法律人才，帮助捍卫我们的工作。”
她的批评者对她的一些举措提出了质疑，例如花费25万美元协助资助民主党州检察长协会会议。考虑到州检察官一直在调查筹款平台，这一举措引发了质疑。阿克布卢的发言人罗伯茨·拉布表示，与州检察长团体的合作已获得阿克布卢董事会的批准。
高盛·博林的警告——以及阿克布卢在2023年致众议院行政委员会主席布莱恩·斯泰尔的信件中，是否错误描述了其对潜在外国捐款的审核流程——如今成为了共和党对该组织重新展开调查的核心。该调查于2023年10月首次启动。
此次调查现已扩大至众议院司法委员会和监督委员会，由共和党主导的三个委员会最近要求获取与不当行为相关的内部文件和通信。共和党人威胁称，如果不将文件移交给议员，他们将采取惩罚措施。
“目前的调查围绕着阿克布卢误导国会展开，”斯泰尔告诉CNN。
阿克布卢的现任外部法律顾问表示，该组织官员一直本着诚意回答议员的问题并提供文件，同时提供了一份他们认为受律师-客户特权保护的材料清单。
三个委员会传唤了五名前阿克布卢员工，这些员工146次援引第五修正案反对自证其罪，或援引律师-客户特权拒绝回答问题。华莱士-琼斯在6月国会的公开听证会上也采取了同样的做法，多次拒绝回应提问，包括是否曾向国会撒谎。
在她出席国会听证会的同一天发布的一段YouTube视频中，华莱士-琼斯为该平台进行了辩护，并表示援引第五修正案“并非承认甚至暗示有罪”。
“这是对一场高度党派化的听证会的唯一合理回应，这场听证会旨在骚扰其最大政治对手的筹款平台，”她补充道。
华莱士-琼斯和她的律师辩称，国会山的共和党人是在推动司法部对该平台的调查——这一调查是特朗普去年首次要求启动的——而非开展合法的国会监督。
与此同时，民主党议员认为共和党正在开展片面的党派调查，并指出共和党未能审查WinRed——这个2019年推出的、作为共和党应对阿克布卢巨额筹款能力的筹款平台。
CNN一项针对针对老年捐款人的欺诈性筹款做法指控的调查发现，2022年1月至2024年6月期间，联邦贸易委员会收到的针对WinRed的投诉数量是针对阿克布卢的近七倍。
“令人愤慨但并不意外的是，这个共和党多数派完全拒绝调查有关共和党筹款平台WinRed存在欺诈、滥用职权和腐败的严肃可信报告，”众议院行政委员会资深民主党议员乔·莫雷尔在6月华莱士-琼斯出席的听证会上说道。
当被问及这一批评时，斯泰尔告诉CNN：“据我所知，没有指控称WinRed曾误导或向国会撒谎。”
WinRed未回复CNN的置评请求。
阿克布卢仍是民主党政治的核心支柱
作为调查阿克布卢命令的一部分，特朗普还指示司法部长向白宫提交调查结果报告。报告原定于2025年10月提交，但至今未公开。今年早些时候，时任代理司法部长的托德·布兰奇表示，该调查仍是该机构的优先事项。
司法部拒绝向CNN提供有关调查进展的任何细节，援引了不讨论“正在进行中”的调查的政策。
今年6月，阿克布卢取得了一场法律胜利：位于阿克布卢总部波士顿的一名联邦法官叫停了得克萨斯州总检察长肯·帕克斯顿提起的针对该平台的诉讼。帕克斯顿目前正在竞选美国参议院议员。
尽管遭遇诸多风波，阿克布卢仍是民主党筹款的核心引擎。
该平台最近宣布，2026年第二季度为民主党事业、候选人和组织筹集了5.86亿美元。阿克布卢官员表示，这标志着其22年历史中非总统选举季的最强筹款期。
但围绕阿克布卢潜在威胁的担忧，促使一些候选人开始建立备用筹款系统，以防该平台在11月选举前遭到特朗普政府的致命打击。
一位民主党众议院候选人表示，有捐款人询问其他捐款平台，因为他们对阿克布卢感到担忧。
那位鼓励候选人使用备用筹款工具的民主党策略师有信心，即使阿克布卢陷入严重危机，民主党也能够适应。
“为我们的竞选活动捐款的人消息灵通，”这位人士说道。“你可能不得不说：‘听着，共和党已经搞垮了阿克布卢，对此我深表歉意，但你需要重新输入信用卡信息。’”
“他们会照做的，”这位人士补充道。“会多一点操作步骤，但事情会办成的。”
Inside the drama at ActBlue – and why some Democrats are quietly afraid it could cost them in the midterms
2026-08-13T09:00:29.883Z / CNN
On a Saturday morning last year, several of ActBlue’s lawyers and executives gathered on a video call to discuss a sensitive matter with the fundraising platform’s president and CEO.
A review by an outside law firm had raised questions about whether the organization had always taken the steps to stop illegal foreign contributions that Regina Wallace-Jones had told Congress it had.
Wallace-Jones was urged to alert ActBlue’s board of directors about a potential legal vulnerability. But according to people with familiar with the discussion, Wallace-Jones flatly rejected the idea.
“I refuse to let you go to the board with this information,” she said, according to one person.
The confrontation led to the rapid departure of several key ActBlue employees and a chain of events that reverberates through Democratic campaigns more than a year later. It has given new life to probes by Republicans on Capitol Hill, who have sought to cast ActBlue as a conduit for foreign money.
Among national Democrats worried about countering a deluge of Republican-aligned spending in the midterms, there are quiet concerns about the future of ActBlue and the management style of its leader.
Anyone who has made an online donation to a Democratic candidate in recent years likely did so through ActBlue. In a midterm election cycle where national GOP-aligned groups are equipped to outspend their Democratic counterparts, any disruption to ActBlue would affect thousands of the party’s campaigns that rely on small-dollar donations to keep up.
“For people who work in the Democratic ecosystem, it’s been a wake-up call to us that we have a vendor that is too big to fail, in effect,” said one Democratic strategist who is encouraging campaigns to use more fundraising platforms. “And we’ve had to reckon with that.”
ActBlue defended Wallace-Jones, who declined to be interviewed, and rejected the characterization of how she handled the meeting with lawyers. The organization’s spokeswoman, De’Andra Roberts LaBoo, said in a statement that the CEO has kept the board abreast of “all material updates” throughout her tenure.
“I was recruited in 2023 to grow our mission-driven, technology-focused organization to support more candidates, causes and small-dollar donors,” Wallace-Jones said in a statement provided by ActBlue. “We have been able to steer the organization from a single-service startup into a diversified technology platform supporting campaign operations well beyond fundraising. Change on this scale isn’t easy, but neither is protecting the integrity of small-dollar democracy.”
President Donald Trump last year ordered the Justice Department to investigate whether ActBlue allowed illegal straw donations and foreign contributions to infiltrate US elections. Last October, federal prosecutors in two separate US attorney’s offices made initial inquiries about ActBlue’s operations, according to a person familiar with the matter. Three separate GOP-led congressional committees have been probing the organization for years but have not publicly made good on threats to escalate the matter.
“There’s a lot of smoke coming out of that building. I think we need to find out if there’s a fire,” GOP Rep. Tom McClintock of California, who serves on one of the committees investigating ActBlue, told CNN.
Former ActBlue employees and people inside the Democratic ecosystem in Washington also say Wallace-Jones’ actions and management style have created momentum for Republicans. The three-year effort on Capitol Hill to investigate ActBlue appeared to be winding down until news of Wallace-Jones’ potential mismanagement first broke in The New York Times.
Wallace-Jones’ reaction on last year’s call was emblematic of her management style, according to critics who have worked inside ActBlue and spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity. They described a work atmosphere in which some employees were mocked or had their views dismissed out of hand by the CEO, who sometimes referred to herself in the third person in meetings.
“She would say things like, ‘Stop being so lawyerly. This is going to be OK,’” said one former employee, who was granted anonymity to candidly discuss the inner workings of the organization.
Neither ActBlue nor any of its current or former employees have been charged with wrongdoing. And Democrats have roundly denounced the GOP-led probes as politically motivated attacks. Democratic lawmakers and strategists argue that investigations are instead aimed at destabilizing their party ahead of the midterms, now less than three months away.
“A lot of people just want to Monday morning quarterback,” said Democratic strategist Mike Nellis, who runs the digital fundraising and advertising firm Authentic. “Republicans would have made hay out of anything. It doesn’t matter what Regina said or did or anything else. This is all politically motivated.”
ActBlue is the small-dollar fundraising engine for the Democratic Party, with more than 20,000 campaigns and organizations using it to process online contributions. It is sustained through the fees it charges on transactions and “tips,” voluntary payments that contributors add on to help fund the platform’s operating expenses. More than $19 billion has been processed through the platform since 2004, according to its website.
ActBlue’s express-giving feature is a signature strength. Over the years, donors have stored their credit card information with the platform, allowing them to easily contribute to any affiliated campaign or organization with just one click.
Federal law makes it illegal for foreign nationals to contribute to US candidates with the goal of preventing foreign influence in American elections. US citizens living abroad, however, are free to contribute to politicians back in the United States.
Starting in 2023, Republicans on Capitol Hill, citing reporting by Fox News and others, began questioning how ActBlue vetted the contributions it sends to Democrats to guard against fraud.
“We have to be above reproach because they will come up with reasons to investigate Democrats,” said one Democratic strategist working in Senate campaigns. “And any fodder that you give them, while it may be unfair that they take this route, it’s still fodder.”
For some staffers who had grown frustrated with Wallace-Jones’ leadership, the February 2025 confrontation on the video call proved a breaking point. Several departed within days of the meeting.
The dispute revolved around memos from ActBlue’s then-outside law firm, Covington & Burling, warning that some elements of a 2023 letter that Wallace-Jones had sent to Congress describing how the platform vetted contributions from foreign addresses may not have been accurate.
Wallace-Jones said in the letter that ActBlue sought US passport numbers on its contribution form for donations from foreign addresses. That was in effect for contributions made with credit cards, but it wasn’t necessarily the practice followed when the contribution came through a third-party platform, such as PayPal or Venmo, Covington indicated in a February 18, 2025, memo viewed by CNN.
Additionally, Covington warned that ActBlue did not follow the level of review for contributions from foreign addresses as described by the Federal Election Commission, the agency that is charged with policing campaign contributions in presidential and congressional elections.
“This creates a substantial risk that some of the funds received were impermissible contributions from foreign nationals,” the lawyers concluded.
The meeting occurred four days after Covington’s memos landed and was described by people familiar as an effort to prod Wallace-Jones to act on the issues raised by the firm.
Two days after the Saturday meeting, Aaron Ting, then the most senior in-house lawyer at ActBlue, resigned.
“I am concerned that leadership is not fully committed to transparently addressing with the Board the seriousness of our most pressing concerns: the legal compliance of ActBlue’s past practices for screening political donations from abroad and its past representations to Congress regarding foreign donations and related matters,” he said in his resignation letter, which was reviewed by CNN.
Officials at Covington & Burling did not respond to CNN’s inquiries. The firm no longer represents ActBlue, and ActBlue’s leaders have publicly criticized the firm.
Several days after the meeting, another in-house ActBlue attorney, Zain Ahmad, forwarded the law firm’s memos and other internal documents to board members and top ActBlue executives before abruptly taking a leave of absence.
ActBlue representatives contend that the original 2023 letter Wallace-Jones sent to Congress was accurate, and the organization did not mislead lawmakers.
In a statement to CNN, ActBlue’s full board of directors affirmed their support for Wallace-Jones, saying she has “demonstrated exceptional leadership across every dimension of the job,” kept the board “closely apprised of evolving risks” and “built an incredibly capable Legal and Compliance team, ensuring we operate at the highest standards of accountability.”
In a June 2025 letter to Congress, several months after Covington’s warning, ActBlue’s current outside law firm said it had implemented new measures to protect against impermissible foreign contributions. ActBlue has opted to bar any contributions with a foreign mailing address or IP address, even those from US citizens living abroad who are legally allowed to contribute to candidates back at home.
Wallace-Jones became CEO of ActBlue in January 2023, having previously held executive positions in several tech companies, including eBay, Facebook and Yahoo. The Stanford-trained engineer also was active in politics, having served on the city council of East Palo Alto, California, and a stint as the city’s mayor during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Wallace-Jones has worked to change the organization from operating as a fundraising vendor to one that meets her vision of offering a full campaign in a box to candidates.
Jaime Harrison, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said innovations under Wallace-Jones – such as offering a website builder – are making it easier for down-ballot candidates to run their campaigns. “I’m a big fan of the work she’s done,” he said in an interview.
Harrison said he believes the criticism of Wallace-Jones has been unfair. “Even on the Democratic side, sometimes being a woman and a woman of color, you get some certain biases.”
During Wallace-Jones’ tenure, ActBlue’s spending has soared, with operating expenses so far this cycle topping $93 million, far exceeding the roughly $67 million spent during the entire midterm cycle in 2022, Federal Election Commission records show.
Legal bills have jumped, as a battery of lawyers has been deployed to defend the organization and Wallace-Jones personally. ActBlue has spent more than $17 million on “legal consulting” in a 17-month period between January 1, 2025, and May 31, 2026, according to FEC records.
“We are committed to standing up for our rights, and the rights of all Americans who disagree with this administration,” Wallace-Jones said of the rising the legal expenses. “Part of fighting is retaining the best legal minds to help defend our work.”
Her critics have questioned some of her moves, such as spending $250,000 to help underwrite a conference of the Democratic Attorneys General Association. It raised eyebrows, given the role that state prosecutors have played in investigating fundraising platforms. The partnership with the attorneys general group was approved by ActBlue’s board, spokesperson Roberts LaBoo said.
The warnings from Covington & Burling – and whether ActBlue mischaracterized its vetting of potential foreign contributions in the 2023 letter to Committee on House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil – now sit at the center of the a renewed Republican probe into the organization that was first launched in October 2023.
That probe has since expanded to the House Judiciary and Oversight committees as well, with the trio of GOP-led committees recently demanding access to internal documents and communications relating to potential misconduct. Republicans have threatened repercussions if they are not turned over to lawmakers.
“The investigation now is about ActBlue misleading Congress,” Steil told CNN.
ActBlue’s current outside legal firm says that the group’s officials have worked in good faith to answer lawmakers’ questions and provide documents, along with a log of material they say is covered by attorney-client privilege.
The three committees subpoenaed five former ActBlue employees who invoked their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination 146 times or cited attorney-client privilege in declining to answer questions. Wallace-Jones similarly followed suit at a public hearing in June before Congress, repeatedly declining to respond to inquiries, including whether she lied to Congress.
In a https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6lLlIUjUu4 posted the same day she appeared on Capitol Hill, Wallace-Jones defended the platform and said invoking the Fifth is “not an admission or even an insinuation of guilt.”
“It is the only reasonable response to a highly partisan proceeding that is about harassing its largest political opponent’s fundraising platform,” she added.
Wallace-Jones and her attorneys argue that Hill Republicans are working to advance a Department of Justice investigation of the platform that Trump first demanded last year, rather than engaging in legitimate congressional oversight.
Democratic lawmakers, meanwhile, argue that Republicans are waging a one-sided partisan probe, pointing to the GOP’s failure to scrutinize WinRed, a fundraising platform launched in 2019 as the Republicans’ answer to blockbuster fundraising on ActBlue.
A CNN investigation into allegations of deceptive fundraising practices targeting older donors found that from January 2022 through June 2024 WinRed had nearly seven times more complaints filed against it with the Federal Trade Commission than ActBlue had.
“It’s outrageous but hardly surprising that this Republican majority has flat-out refused to investigate critical, credible reports of fraud, abuse and corruption on the Republican fundraising platform WinRed,” Democratic Rep. Joe Morelle, the top Democrat on the Committee on House Administration, said at the panel’s June hearing with Wallace-Jones.
Asked about that critique, Steil told CNN: “There’s no accusation to my knowledge that WinRed ever misled or lied to Congress.”
WinRed did not respond to CNN’s inquiries.
ActBlue remains central to Democratic politics
As part of his order to investigate ActBlue, Trump also directed the attorney general to issue a report on its findings to the White House. It was due in October 2025, but nothing has been made public to date. Earlier this year while still the acting Justice Department head, Attorney General Todd Blanche indicated it remained a priority for the agency.
The Justice Department declined to provide any details about status of the probe to CNN, citing a policy against discussing “ongoing” investigations.
ActBlue scored a legal victory in June when a federal judge in Boston, where ActBlue is based, halted a lawsuit against the platform brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is running for the US Senate.
Through it all, ActBlue has remained the primary fundraising engine for Democrats.
It recently announced raising $586 million during the second quarter of 2026 for Democratic causes, candidates and organizations. ActBlue officials said that marked the strongest fundraising period in a non-presidential election season in its 22-year history.
But the alarm over potential threats to ActBlue has prompted some candidates to begin putting in place backup fundraising systems should the platform come under a debilitating attack from the Trump administration before November’s election.
One Democratic House candidate has had donors ask about other donating platforms because the contributors are nervous about ActBlue.
The party strategist encouraging candidates to pursue backup fundraising tools is confident Democrats can adapt should ActBlue become seriously endangered.
“The type of people who give to our campaigns are well informed,” the person said. “I think you’d have to say, “Listen, Republicans have taken down ActBlue, and so I’m deeply sorry, but you’re going to need to put your credit card back in.’”
“They’ll do it,” the person added. “It’s a little more friction, but it’ll happen.”
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