Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Scores MAJOR Victory Against Democrat Fundraising Giant ActBlue

On Thursday, Attorney General Ken Paxton (R-TX) announced that the Democrat fundraising site ActBlue has yielded to his demands to add additional identifying information for donors when inputting credit card information. The victory comes after reporting from the O'Keefe Media Group, led by independent reporter James O'Keefe, exposed multiple instances of potential fraud in various undercover videos in several states. 

Earlier this year, James O'Keefe released a report that highlighted the alleged "money laundering scheme" between ActBlue and unsuspecting elderly donors. According to public records, some donors who had previously donated to ActBlue were having donations made in their name up to three times a day, every day, for an entire year. One of the donors highlighted by O'Keefe had allegedly made over 1,000 donations across 2022, totaling $18,849.77. 

In response to the investigation, Attorney General Ken Paxton took action to ensure that the organization was compliant with Texas law. "In December 2023, we opened an investigation into the major fundraising platform ActBlue to determine whether their operations are compliant with all applicable laws," Paxton wrote on X. "ActBlue has cooperated with our ongoing investigation. They have changed their requirements to now include 'CVV' codes for donations on their platform. This is a critical change that can help prevent fraudulent donations."

"But it is most important that we enforce the law and protect the integrity of our elections," he explained. "Certain features of campaign finance law may incentivize bad actors to use platforms like ActBlue to covertly move money to political campaigns to evade legal requirements. Suspicious activity on fundraising platforms must be fully investigated to determine if any laws have been broken."

Paxton isn't the only elected official looking into ActBlue's discrepancies in its donation information. Last week, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares (R-VA) sent a letter to ActBlue demanding they provide a detailed description of their processes and procedures by August 12. Miyares explained in his letter that hundreds of donations were being made in these donors' names and that some of them were elderly citizens who listed their occupation as "not employed" or "retired."

"Taken together, these circumstances appear to indicate that contributions via ActBlue are being made with fictional donors or dummy accounts, or that information reported by or through ActBlue may be fraudulent," the Virginia attorney general explained. "Alternatively, these circumstances may indicate that contributions via ActBlue are being made without the reported donors' consent or awareness. Accordingly, these contributions and ActBlue's facilitation thereof may violate multiple provisions of Virginia charitable and criminal law." The Republican official emphasized that ActBlue could have broken multiple local, state, and federal election laws if the accusations of fraudulent behavior proved to be credible. 

Attorney General Paxton's investigation into ActBlue has already brought about change within the Democrat fundraising organization, and a more extensive investigation by multiple attorney generals across the country may yield more results in the coming months.

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