- "The results of these investigations suggest that the ActBlue fundraising platform is being used to launder fraudulent political donations using the names and addresses of ordinary citizens," Horn said.
An investigative journalist from North Carolina, Stephen Horn, has made a significant discovery in the Federal Election Commission (FEC) database, revealing a scheme to potentially “launder fraudulent political donations” through multiple leftwing organizations, including ActBlue.
Horn and two other volunteers, Kelley Lane and “Steve,” unearthed evidence of two Raleigh residents whose names and addresses were employed to record substantial amounts of money donated to Democratic organizations.
However, a perplexing twist emerged when both individuals emphatically stated their inability to contribute such exorbitant sums.
“There was absolutely no way I could afford to make those types of contributions,” a Raleigh resident (designated A.D.), whose identity has been kept confidential by Horn, said.
Reports show A.D. gave $26,204.07 to Democratic-aligned causes during the 2021-22 election cycle through 1,905 transactions.
“There is no way I could give anywhere near that kind of money,” he said.
A.D. said he is retired and lives on a fixed income, although he did say he had made some smaller contributions, “like $15 and $20” amounts, toward Democratic causes.
“Earlier this year, after seeing a viral video by O’Keefe Media Group on fraudulent political contributions laundered via the ActBlue platform up in Maryland, I was inspired to verify the story by looking into potential victims of what I consider “political contribution identity theft” in my own backyard,” Horn said. “The results: out of the six donors we were able to speak with, two confirmed that the amount of political contributions attributed to them via FEC records was far higher than the amount they had actually contributed in the two year 2021-2022 period.”
According to Horn, about $15,000 of the $26,204.07 in the last two years was on the ActBlue platform.
ActBlue is an online fundraising platform for Democratic candidates and organizations. It emphasizes its strong grassroots fundraising programs and has reported raising over $12 billion since 2004. ActBlue is obligated to disclose political contributions it processes to the FEC, including the contributor’s name, address, amount, and date of contribution.
“The results of these investigations suggest that the ActBlue fundraising platform is being used to launder fraudulent political donations using the names and addresses of ordinary citizens,” Horn said. “If the individual whose name and address is on a contribution did not in fact make the contribution, it seems likely that the money is coming from a source which would not be legally able to make the contribution directly.”
ActBlue raised a significant amount of money for Democrats during the 2022 race following the Dobbs decision, raising $20.6 million on the day the decision was released, their largest sum ever.
“[ActBlue] raised almost $513 million during the second quarter of 2022, with 2.8 million unique donors giving to more than 16,000 campaigns and organizations,” according to an ActBlue media release.
Another Raleigh resident desginated as “A.B.”—who was listed as giving $22,422.08—confirmed to Horn that she had not given anywhere near that amount of money.
Two other supposed donors in Durham and Chapel Hill did not live at the residence listed. The person who did live at the residence confirmed they had not donated the amounts listed—$12,690.58 and $5,566.10, respectively.
“Act Blue is the most common fundraising tool for Democrat committees, PAC’s and politically aligned non-profits, and there have been concerns over the years about its reporting, including from Senator Rubio who called for the FEC to investigate,” said Jim Stirling of the John Locke Foundation. “While the accuracy of a report is ultimately the responsibility of a committee’s treasurer, inaccurate donor information or transactions being misattributed to a donor can lead to penalties up to or exceeding the contribution in question.”