Quote:
From NYT:The firm concluded that ActBlue's chief executive had given a potentially misleading response to congressional Republican investigators in a 2023 letter explaining how the organization vetted donations to ensure that they were not illegally coming from foreign citizens.
Here is link to the letter:
https://cha.house.gov/_cache/files/4/5/453a1689-6471-4632-8874-2ea5018820a7/FEE0032E48BFF011537DA5927F7E9298.response-to-house-admin-committee-11-27-23.pdf
Back to the article. Here is the main issue is the CEO said vs what ActBlue did:
Quote:
The letter from the chief executive, Regina Wallace-Jones, said ActBlue carried out "multilayered" screenings of contributions that helped "root out" those from overseas. In fact, the law firm found, some of the steps she had described were not always followed.
"This presents a substantial risk for ActBlue," the law firm, Covington & Burling, wrote in one of two memos expressing legal concerns. One memo raised the specter of a criminal investigation if prosecutors believed that ActBlue had tried to conceal facts about its efforts to prevent foreign contributions.
Federal election law prohibits foreign citizens or people who are not permanent residents from donating directly to federal candidates or political action committees. Lying to or obstructing Congress is a crime.
The memos instigated a meltdown at the highest levels of ActBlue, one of the Democratic Party's most vital financial organs.
Here is the link to NYT article sorry it's behind a paywall: ActBlue has issues with Vetting Foreign Donations
But The Ruthless Podcast covered this story at 28:55 mark goes into the details. Enjoy!