(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) ActBlue, the Democratic Party’s fundraising arm, is in deep turmoil after a major legacy media outlet and its former law firm accused it of making potentially misleading or false statements to Congress.
The New York Times, a left-wing newspaper infamous for its favorable coverage of Democrats, reported Thursday that ActBlue’s own legal team raised concerns about statements made to the then-Republican-led House Administration Committee in 2023.
At the time, Republicans were probing allegations that foreign donations were making their way into Democrats’ coffers.
The issue centers on a 2023 letter from ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones, who claimed the group only processed donations with foreign mailing addresses if a U.S. passport number was provided.
She also asserted that ActBlue maintained a “multilayered” system to root out foreign contributions.
Here’s the kicker: attorneys with Covington & Burling, which ActBlue had retained, reportedly wrote in a 2025 memo that those assurances were not completely accurate.
“This presents a substantial risk for ActBlue,” the firm warned in an alleged internal memo.
In another memo, Covington said prosecutors could view ActBlue’s 2023 claims as attempts to conceal aspects of its donation processing system, because federal law prohibits foreign donations and makes lying to Congress a crime.
Dana Remus, a former Biden White House counsel who later joined Covington, even advised Wallace-Jones to seek personal legal counsel in the event of criminal scrutiny.
Notably, ActBlue fired Covington weeks later and now claims the firm had originally approved the letter.
In a blog post published on its website, ActBlue blasted both the Times and its former counsel while effectively labeling the report as fake news.
“We worked with the reporters covering this story and provided the full context and truth of what happened. However, the truth is a very different story than what is being reported, and that is deeply unfortunate,” ActBlue wrote in the blog.
“If we cannot look to our legacy newsrooms to provide honest and accurate reporting, which we know is a troubling trend, we must share the truth ourselves,” it added.
The organization insisted the 2023 letter to Congress was accurate and had been “reviewed and approved by multiple in-house and outside attorneys before it was submitted.”
It also noted that those approvals included “the same former attorneys who are now characterizing it differently to the press.”
The current scrutiny comes a year after President Donald Trump directed the DOJ and Treasury Department to investigate allegations surrounding ActBlue’s fundraising practices.
Trump ordered officials to probe the potential use of online platforms to make so-called straw or dummy foreign contributions to political candidates and committees, and “to take all appropriate actions to enforce the law.”
