Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times,
ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones invoked the Fifth Amendment on Wednesday before the House Administration Committee, surrounding reports that she may have misled Congress about how the platform vets foreign donations.
Wallace-Jones had originally agreed to testify voluntarily before Congress concerning ActBlue's vetting process for foreign contributions to domestic candidates. But her attorneys requested a congressional subpoena on Monday, ahead of her June 10 testimony, according to committee lawmakers.
The House asked Wallace-Jones to testify after a recent New York Times report included memos from Covington & Burling, a law firm that worked for ActBlue, warning that she may have misled Congress about the process for screening overseas donations.
ActBlue is the dominant Democratic fundraising platform. In 2025 alone, the platform reported raising almost $1.8 billion from 52 million contributions, and Q4 that year marked the single-largest off-cycle quarter in ActBlue history.
Under federal election law, foreign nationals or those who are not permanent residents are forbidden to donate directly to federal candidates or political action committees.
Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) said only Americans should decide their elections during the hearing titled, "Preventing Fraudulent Donations: Transparency, Verification, and Accountability."
"Ms. Wallace-Jones is here today because there's a significant concern that ActBlue may have allowed foreign donations on their platform, lied to Congress, and withheld responsive documents from a congressional subpoena," Steil said. "All three of those actions are illegal."
Steil said Wallace-Jones provided a 2023 letter to Congress stating that ActBlue prevents foreign donations by requiring donors with a foreign address to provide U.S. passport information. If a contribution appears to be from a foreign address, ActBlue contacts the donor to request U.S. passport information. The platform would then refund the contribution if ActBlue was unable to contact the donor.
"The New York Times reported that ActBlue's outside counsel determined those three steps are not always followed," Steil said.
Surrounded by attorneys, Wallace-Jones did not answer any questions posed during the hearing, citing the "attorney-client privilege and my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution."
Wallace-Jones wrote an opinion piece in The Washington Post that appeared on the day of her hearing, saying she would invoke her Fifth Amendment "rights against self-incrimination."
"This is a proceeding designed to build an illegitimate criminal case against us. I cannot and will not let my words be misused in that way," she opined.
Democrats on the committee called the hearing political theater and questioned why the Republican fundraising platform, WinRed, wasn't receiving equal scrutiny from Republicans.
"We're here because Republicans want to talk about ActBlue, not because they're serious about strengthening campaign finance laws or actually strengthening the abuse of fraud in this country," said Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), ranking member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Administrative Committee ranking member Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.) said Republicans are ignoring alleged problems with WinRed. He accused the platform of victimizing elderly Americans.
Morelle also requested a subpoena for Republican Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton, who, as Texas attorney general, sued ActBlue in state court on April 20. The lawsuit alleged that the platform misleads consumers by illegally accepting fraudulent foreign donations for federal and state candidates.
ActBlue filed a countersuit on May 1 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, seeking to block Paxton's lawsuit. Attorneys for the platform asked a federal judge to declare Paxton's ongoing ActBlue investigation and lawsuit unconstitutional, alleging violations of the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
ActBlue accused Paxton of escalating his investigation after donations for James Talarico, his Democratic opponent in the Texas Senate race, surged.
Paxton responded on the day the suit was filed, saying in an X post that ActBlue was "trying to take [him] down."
