House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer, along with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, have issued subpoenas to former ActBlue Vice President of Customer Service Alyssa Twomey and a Senior Workflow Specialist at the organization. The subpoenas compel their appearances before the Committees for depositions concerning allegations that online fundraising platforms, including ActBlue, have accepted fraudulent donations from both domestic and foreign sources. The decision to issue subpoenas followed the employees’ failure to comply with voluntary requests from the Committees.
Documents provided to the Committees suggest that during her tenure as Vice President of Customer Service, Alyssa Twomey oversaw ActBlue’s fraud-prevention team. The Committees claim they have found “significant evidence” indicating that ActBlue had “a fundamentally unserious approach to fraud prevention” at that time.
The Committees revealed that in 2024, ActBlue reportedly weakened its fraud-prevention standards twice despite being aware of substantial attempted fraud on its platform, including efforts by foreign actors. Additionally, training materials for new fraud-prevention staff allegedly instructed employees to “look for reasons to accept contributions” rather than critically assess potentially fraudulent donations.
Further internal documents from ActBlue indicate that senior fraud-prevention personnel identified several ways through which bad actors could bypass ActBlue’s systems and make illicit donations.
The Committees emphasized the necessity of gathering more information about these instances of potential fraudulent donations through online fundraising platforms in order to legislate effectively.
