Virginia’s attorney general and Wyoming’s secretary of state are demanding answers from the fundraising machine ActBlue amid allegations of dubious and possibly fraudulent donations.
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ActBlue is a national Democrat operation used to raise money for candidates.
Virginia AG Jason Miyares noted that many of the donations facilitated by the organization are “in volumes that are facially implausible and appear suspicious,” while Wyoming SOS Chuck Gray is looking into allegations that ActBlue may be involved in identity theft. “Claiming that a person donated to a PAC if that person never donated to that PAC would be a felony under Wyoming law,” he wrote. “I am very concerned and remain committed to a thorough review of contributions to ensure compliance with Wyoming law.”
Miyares, meanwhile, wants ActBlue to turn over details about its inner workings within 10 days:
Miyares became concerned after hearing comments made by Florida GOP Senator Marco Rubio:
The decision to investigate ActBlue came days after Republican Senator Marco Rubio flagged concerns about the organization to conservative pundit and Turning Point Action founder Charlie Kirk. While on Kirk’s podcast, Rubio said ActBlue “has become a money laundering operation.” The senator said that ActBlue doesn’t require a CVV code for a person to donate to the PAC.
“It’s a deliberate strategy on their part,” Rubio said. “If they had to use that code from their credit card, their donations would go.”
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The state attorney general is concerned that donors might not even know they’d given money, an alarming possibility.
The attorney general questioned whether the donations are being made from “fictional donors or dummy accounts,” that “information reported by or through ActBlue may be fraudulent” or these donations could have been made “without the reported donors’ consent or awareness.”
The letter did not state how many donors may be involved and did not offer a precise total of how much money may be involved.
Miyares requested that ActBlue provide his office with “a detailed description of ActBlue’s processes and procedures for verifying the legitimacy and accuracy of donor and contribution information as well as the processes and procedures used in verifying information reported to regulatory bodies.”
The information should be provided by August 12, he wrote.
ActBlue responded to the letter in a statement on Friday, denying wrongdoing and claiming the probe is just partisan politics.
“This investigation is nothing more than a partisan political attack and scare tactic to undermine the power of Democratic and progressive small-dollar donors. We welcome the opportunity to respond to these frivolous claims,” ActBlue wrote in a statement.
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We’ll have to wait and see if these dual investigations uncover evidence of wrongdoing, but the allegations are serious indeed.