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Authored by Debra Heine via American Greatness,

A coalition of 19 Republican state attorneys general have launched a criminal investigation into the Democrat fundraising platform ActBlue over allegations of money laundering.

As American Greatness reported in April, multiple independent investigative journalists, including O’Keefe Media Group (OMG) and Election Watch have uncovered what appears to be illegal activity involving millions of dollars in campaign donations to Act Blue that have been laundered through unwitting small donors.

The process of breaking up large donations and submitting them under the names of small donors to cover up illegal contributions has been dubbed “smurfing.” Suspicions that ActBlue routinely engages in this type of illicit fundraising have dogged the outfit since at least Joe Biden’s presidential campaign in 2020.

The Committee on House Administration, chaired by Congressman Bryan Steil (R-Wisc.), launched an investigation into Act Blue in November of 2023 to look into reports that the fundraising giant was skirting campaign donation laws and allowing rampant fraud on the site. The committee widened its probe in August 2024.

In a letter sent to top officials on the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on August 5, Steil urged them to “immediately initiate an emergency rulemaking to require political campaigns to verify the card verification value (‘CVV’) of donors who contribute online using a credit or debit card, and to prohibit political campaigns from accepting online contributions from a gift card or other prepaid credit cards.”

In September, Steil sent letters to five states, urging them to launch criminal investigations into ActBlue’s alleged illicit activities, citing three specific areas of concern:

The number of GOP AGs involved in the effort has since swelled to 19.

On Tuesday, the 19 Republican Attorney’s General sent a letter to ActBlue CEO and President Regina Wallace-Jones demanding information and explanations regarding the suspicious donations.

The AGs demanded a response to the the following requests for information no later than October 23, 2024:

1. Confirmation that ActBlue requires CVV numbers for all donations made via credit card.

2. A description of when and under what circumstances ActBlue first decided to require donors to submit CVV numbers.

3. Confirmation that ActBlue requires a legitimate address that is tied to the credit or debit card that a donor uses to make a contribution.

4. An explanation of how ActBlue ensures that all donors are persons legally allowed to make donations in the election to which they are donating.

5. An explanation of whether and how ActBlue’s operations are consistent with industry standards for securely processing credit card or other payment transactions.

6. A description of any measures ActBlue utilizes to ensure compliance with 52 U.S.C. § 30121, including whether ActBlue follows the guidance provided by the FEC in FEC Advisory Opinion (AO) 1998-14 on how to identify the nationality of donors.

7. A description of how ActBlue’s platform facilitates automatic, recurring donations from donors and what safeguards ActBlue has in place to ensure that donors do not inadvertently contribute more than they intend.