BS BULLETIN:

• ActBlue is launching a new passport-based identity verification system for Americans donating from abroad.
• House Republicans say the old system checked whether a passport number had the right number of characters — not whether it was actually valid.
• ActBlue denies wrongdoing and says Republicans are mischaracterizing a system that successfully protected against foreign contributions.

Well, this is awkward timing.

ActBlue, the Democratic Party’s massive online fundraising platform, has announced a new passport verification program as House Republicans investigate allegations that its previous safeguards left the door open to illegal foreign political donations.

ActBlue attorneys informed congressional investigators Monday that the organization was adding: “passport-based identity verification” as an additional layer of protection when it resumes accepting contributions from Americans living abroad.

Nothing especially remarkable about tightening security.

Except for what congressional investigators say the old “verification” system actually did.

According to a joint Republican committee report, when someone donating from a foreign address was asked to provide a U.S. passport number, ActBlue’s system essentially checked whether the entry contained the correct number of characters.

Not whether it corresponded to a valid U.S. passport.

Just whether it looked like one.

Republican investigators described the old procedure this way: “very basic validation—number of characters”

The committees argue that meant ActBlue’s passport safeguard didn’t actually establish that the donor was an eligible American citizen.

Now ActBlue says its new program will use a valid U.S. passport to verify the identities of eligible American donors overseas.

House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil immediately pounced.

“This decision to implement a NEW passport verification program only confirms what we’ve been saying.”

Steil accused ActBlue of previously failing to adequately verify the citizenship of people donating from abroad and said investigators still want to know whether any illegal foreign money made its way through the platform.

Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan’s office was similarly unimpressed, saying the change showed ActBlue’s fraud-prevention measures: “were not as robust” as CEO Regina Wallace-Jones had represented to Congress.

And this isn’t happening in isolation.

Republican investigators recently released internal ActBlue communications that they say raise more uncomfortable questions.

One memo cited in their report described a donation as a “great accept” while acknowledging: “Donor sometimes has an IP in Hong Kong”

Another internal communication concerning a denied contribution reportedly said: “It is a foreign contribution” before going on to argue that the contribution should nevertheless have been accepted because other identifying information matched.

Those excerpts are allegations presented by Republican investigators; they do not by themselves establish that an illegal foreign contribution was ultimately accepted or retained.

ActBlue strongly disputes the Republicans’ broader conclusions.

The organization says the congressional investigation is politically motivated and points to an outside forensic analysis that it says vindicated its procedures.

ActBlue says 99.99% of nearly $990 million in political contributions during 2023 came from donors who supplied either a U.S. address or passport number. It also says contributions from Americans overseas represented only 0.13% of the year’s political contribution dollars.

The organization previously suspended contributions from outside the United States in 2025 and says the upgraded passport technology will allow eligible Americans overseas to begin donating again while strengthening its safeguards.

There is another reason this fight has become unusually combustible.

Wallace-Jones repeatedly invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during a June congressional hearing rather than answer Republicans’ questions about ActBlue’s handling of donations. She said beforehand that doing so was the only reasonable response to what she characterized as a politically motivated investigation rather than legitimate oversight.

Fox reports that ten ActBlue figures, including executives and founders, have invoked the Fifth during congressional questioning.

So now Washington has an investigation into possible foreign donations, internal documents Republicans say show troubling decisions, executives taking the Fifth — and a brand-new passport verification system arriving right in the middle of it.

ActBlue says that’s evidence of continuing investment in security.

Republicans say it’s evidence their investigation was onto something.

MY QUICK TAKE

There is a wonderfully simple question here that doesn’t require anybody to join Team Republican or Team Democrat: If you call something “passport verification,” shouldn’t somebody verify the passport?

The distinction matters because the accusation is not that every overseas ActBlue donation was foreign money. Americans living abroad are perfectly entitled to participate in American politics under the applicable rules.

The question is whether the system actually established that they were Americans.

ActBlue has an answer: its forensic review says the system overwhelmingly worked.

Republicans have another: if the old verification was perfectly adequate, why introduce real passport identity verification now?

That’s precisely the sort of question congressional oversight exists to answer.

Preferably with something more illuminating than taking the Fifth.

DBS WIRE SOURCES:

• Fox News — Dem fundraising giant makes damning admission as GOP probes foreign donation allegations
• House Administration Committee — Committees release third interim staff report on ActBlue
• Fox News — ActBlue accused of fraudulent donation ‘cover-up’ in explosive report
• Washington Post — ActBlue CEO repeatedly invokes Fifth Amendment during House panel hearing
• ActBlue — New analysis debunks GOP attacks on ActBlue