Missouri AG Launches Probe Into ActBlue Over Alleged Donor Misrepresentation

Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway announced on Tuesday that her office has opened an investigation into whether Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue violated state law by misrepresenting the origins of political contributions — including whether funds attributed to U.S. donors actually originated abroad.

Hanaway launched the inquiry on Friday under the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act, the state's consumer protection statute that prohibits fraud, deception, misrepresentation and other unfair practices. Her office is examining whether ActBlue routed money raised through potentially fraudulent contributions to Missouri candidates, campaigns or political committees.

"We're going to get to the bottom of it," Hanaway said in an interview on Carl Higbie's program. "And if somebody is committing criminal fraud, we will put them in jail."

Scope of the Investigation

Hanaway's team has issued ActBlue a civil investigative demand requiring documents, communications and other materials to be produced by Oct. 8. The office will seek to determine whether any of the funds processed by ActBlue can be attributed to Missouri contributors and whether any misrepresentations would be chargeable under state law.

Hanaway emphasized the legal basis for the probe: "We have a very powerful tool called the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act. To the extent that ActBlue has said certain things are true that aren't, that's all it takes." She described the statute as functioning similarly to a false-advertising rule — if contributions were presented as coming from U.S. sources when they were not, or if donations were wrongly attributed to particular individuals, those misrepresentations could form the basis for charges.

Background And Congressional Scrutiny

The investigation follows a Republican-led congressional review. A joint interim report this month by three Republican-led House committees alleged shortcomings in ActBlue's fraud-prevention procedures, including that the platform did not always require a valid U.S. passport number when donations displayed foreign indicators and that analysts were advised to "give the donor the benefit of the doubt" despite potential red flags.

ActBlue has denied wrongdoing. The organization pointed to a third-party forensic review that concluded 99.99% of nearly $990 million in political contributions it processed in 2023 came from donors who provided either a U.S. address or a passport number. In a statement to Newsmax, an ActBlue spokesperson called the Missouri investigation part of a "coordinated campaign" by Republicans and said the forensic analysis "completely undermined a central claim" made against the platform.

Hanaway also noted congressional testimony in which ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones invoked the Fifth Amendment rather than answer certain questions about the platform's fraud-prevention practices; five other current or former ActBlue employees reportedly asserted their Fifth Amendment rights during earlier depositions. Hanaway said accountability could extend beyond the organization to company officers if evidence supports criminal charges.

Next steps: Hanaway's office will review materials produced in response to the civil investigative demand and pursue further legal or criminal action only if the evidence supports such steps.