It was a political funding storm.  ,
His vice president and presumed successor reportedly had raked in an eye-popping campaign contribution haul of around$ 100 million after President Joe Biden announced he was ending his second term. Within the first 24 hours, Kamala Harris ‘ campaign had reported more than$ 80 million in donations, record-smashing numbers all around.  ,
At the end of July, only 11 times after Biden dropped over and endorsed Harris, the Democratic Party’s fresh standard bearer had raised an incredible monthly total of$ 310 million, according to the Harris plan, more than tripling the money the Biden-Harris battle had on hand.  ,
It was n’t just unprecedented. It was interested. Harris, one of the most controversial vice presidents in U.S. story, had instantly become a political titan with a record that was more ridiculous than the word salad snab she’s thrown around during her undistinguished tenure. From fool to “brat”, at least on the charity money matter.  ,
Sometimes the cash cowboy was the result of Kamala temperature, an incredible surge of joy for the late “border czar” after the 81-year-old, mentally ill Biden suddenly stepped aside. Or,” Days of pent-up Democratic anxiety” giving way to a “historic disaster” of campaign funds, from some 1.1 million sponsors in the first 41 days only, as The Washington Post put it.  ,  ,
Maybe.
Or just maybe, as some suspect, the huge haul was assisted by “fraudulent, false, and potentially illegitimate behavior” by the Democratic Party’s charity program, ActBlue. Several Republican lawmakers, including U. S. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., and Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N. Y., are taking a closer look at allegations of” smurfing” — a cute blue way of describing political money laundering — ahead of a five-alarm presidential election.  ,
Steil, chairman of the House Committee on Administration, says that at the very least “negligent identity security practices involving the use of credit, prepaid, and gift cards for political donations could enable bad actors to circumvent” election integrity laws. Some claim that numerous Democratic campaigns have already used the deed.  ,
In the current political climate, however, getting feckless federal election regulators to investigate and hold anyone accountable may be a difficult task.  ,
Money Laundering Under Any Other Name
In criminal circles, they call it smurfing. Breaking up large transactions into smaller ones is a practice known as the Smurfs, the blue cartoon creatures that inhabited Saturday morning TV screens in the 1980s. The illicit goal of smurfing is to circumvent the federal suspicious activity reports ( SAR ) that currently apply to financial institutions that require them to report transactions exceeding$ 10,000. It’s money laundering by any other name, and it’s often conducted over many accounts.  ,
In a recent Fox News column, former Federal Election Commission member Hans von Spakovsky remarked that” smurfing” involves “breaking up large-scale donations in a way that disguises where the money is actually coming from” and “doing so that the contribution limits on how much money can be donated to a particular candidate can be squelched.”  ,
Von Spakovsky, a Heritage Foundation election law expert, notes that “it may involve widespread mail and wire fraud and the fraudulent use of the identities of unwitting members of the public to violate federal and state campaign finance laws.”  ,
U. S. Sen. Marco Rubio, who was among the first to raise alarms about ActBlue, asserted on Turning Point Action Charlie Kirk’s podcast in July that the Democrat fundraising machine “has become a money laundering operation” . ,
ActBlue is a fundraising Colossus. Since its launch 20 years ago, the platform has received more than$ 14 billion in contributions, which is on par with Moldova‘s gross domestic product.  ,
Multiple Serious Allegations
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares requested answers in a letter to ActBlue officials earlier this month regarding allegations that donors have been making “multiple daily contributions over the course of multiple years amounting to tens of thousands of dollars in aggregate.”
” My office has become aware of multiple serious allegations that ActBlue, ActBlue Civics, Inc., and ActBlue Charities, Inc. ( together’ ActBlue’ ) have engaged in fraudulent, deceptive, and/or otherwise illegal activities in the Commonwealth of Virginia and/or have aided and abetted others in doing so”, Miyares wrote. This includes hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions made by individual Commonwealth donors in amounts that appear to be suspicious and implausible on the face.
In Virginia, as elsewhere, there have been reports of senior citizens, who are listed as “retired” or not employed and at” suspicious addresses”, contributing significant amounts to Democrats and liberal causes, the attorney general asserts. He claimed it appears that donations may have been made without Virginia residents ‘ knowledge or consent.  ,
ActBlue representatives assert in a statement posted on X that the platform was the target of a “years-long disinformation and harassment campaign against ActBlue based on frivolous and false accusations.”
The statement continued,” This investigation is nothing more than a partisan political attack and scare tactic to undermine the power of Democratic and progressive small-dollar donors.” We “welcome the opportunity to respond to these absurd claims.”
ActBlue did not respond to The Federalist’s request for comment.  ,
Last week, Miyares gave ActBlue more time to respond to his questions.  ,
‘ Urgent Concern ‘
Congressional committees, too, are looking into ActBlue’s activities.  ,
Steil earlier this month disclosed that the House Administration Committee was opening its investigation into the Democratic fundraising platform. Additionally, the Wisconsin congressman wrote a letter to the FEC urging commissioners to launch an urgent rulemaking proceeding that would require political campaigns to check the Card Verification Value ( CVV ) of online donors and to forbid political committees from accepting online donations made with gift cards, as well as other prepaid credit and debit cards.
ActBlue confirmed last year that it did not need a CVV to donate on its website. According to reports, that policy has since been changed. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced in a press release on August 8 that ActBlue now requires the codes. In December, Paxton began an investigation into the platform. Rubio also introduced a bill in 2022 mandating donations through CVV codes. The bill has gone nowhere in the Democrat-controlled Senate.  ,
Questions and concerns persist. Are prepaid credit cards being used by individuals and organizations to fraudulently schedule donations in someone else’s name, including foreign actors? Are people given money in their names by straw donors without their knowledge or consent? Sources have contacted the Administration Committee and complained that their data has been used deceitfully.  ,
As of this week, the FEC had not responded to Steil’s letter. Last week, the committee held a briefing with the commission. Do n’t expect the six-member FEC, made up of three Republicans and three Democrats, to resolve this serious campaign finance issue or any other. It has actually been a long-term impotent.  ,
Steil has requested that the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the U.S. Treasury Department look into the situation and hold a press conference the following month to discuss” an urgent concern regarding potential illicit election funding, possibly by foreign actors.”
In the letter dated August 16, Steil wrote,” Negligent identity security practices involving the use of credit, prepaid, and gift cards for political donations may allow bad actors to circumvent laws designed to protect the integrity of our elections,” The chairman raised concerns in it that the organization “has not given financial institutions the necessary guidance in regard to potential illicit campaign contributions.”
Von Spakovsky claimed in his column that investigations are the only way to discover the truth.  ,
According to the former FEC commissioner,” that means both the FEC and the Justice Department and state attorneys general… need to get busy, including talking to the donors listed in the filed reports to see if they had been given permission to make these donations.”  ,
The Federalist’s senior elections correspondent, Matt Kittle, is. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.
