Unwitting straw donors may have funneled donations from China, Russia and Iran to Democrats: House panel

The Republican-led House Administration Committee has found evidence that illegal donations from China, Russia, Iran and Venezuela may have been laundered to Democratic campaigns through the party’s online fundraising juggernaut ActBlue.

Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) wrote to ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones on Monday “to demand information on ActBlue’s donor verification policies,” which are allegedly letting US adversaries use unwitting straw donors to make political contributions.

“Our investigation has indicated that these [foreign] actors may be exploiting existing U.S. [sic] donors by making straw donations without the individuals’ or your platform’s knowledge,” Steil wrote.

“This failure to verify donor identity may have allowed foreign actors to fraudulently participate in the political process.”

ActBlue has already admitted to the committee that it does not require donors to provide the card verification code (“CVV”) associated with credit or debit cards when making an online contribution.

Steil said his committee has petitioned the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to “initiate an emergency rulemaking process” to redress this.

Classified briefings are also expected with the Treasury Department, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and FBI to help the committee further probe foreign illegal donations.

Several state attorneys general have launched further inquiries into referrals from the committee on suspicious donations made in the names of unwitting donors in their states.

This is a developing story; refresh the page for more.