ActBlue tightens passport checks after GOP exposes gaps in donor

ActBlue is introducing stricter passport checks for donors abroad after House Republicans identified weaknesses in the Democratic fundraising platform’s screening procedures, escalating questions about its earlier assurances to Congress.

The new program, quietly unveiled Sunday in a press release by ActBlue, requires passport images and identity checks rather than the passport-number entries Republicans said could clear through the old system without being validated. It will allow U.S. citizens overseas to resume donating after ActBlue suspended contributions from outside the United States in 2025 amid intense scrutiny over its foreign donation vetting process.

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House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) took credit for the changes in an interview with the Washington Examiner on Tuesday, saying, “None of this would have happened but for our investigation.”

But Jordan also questioned why ActBlue was introducing stronger safeguards shortly after touting an outside legal review defending its practices. He also pointed to the previous back-to-back refusals from executives, lawyers, and other figures associated with the platform to answer investigators’ questions.

“Ten out of 10 took the Fifth, and now out of the blue, they came up with this,” Jordan said of the committee’s efforts to interview ActBlue’s executives, including CEO Regina Wallace-Jones, who pleaded the Fifth Amendment 22 times during a June 10 congressional hearing.

Republicans said in a recent committee report that ActBlue’s previous passport-number check tested whether an entry contained the required number of characters rather than whether it was a valid passport number, raising concerns about gaps and loopholes that could allow foreign donors to funnel money into U.S. campaigns.

The new process was also outlined in an email to committee staffers, according to a copy viewed by the Washington Examiner. The new policy requires donors with foreign addresses to provide a passport image, identifying information, and a photograph of their face taken during verification. The checks use Stripe Identity, according to the platform’s updated privacy policy.

More importantly, however, the changes leave unanswered Republicans’ questions about contributions processed under the earlier rules and whether those safeguards matched Wallace-Jones’s descriptions to Congress.

ActBlue defended its practices and described the program as an improvement.

“In 2025, amid unprecedented attacks from President Trump and his allies, our organization took the proactive step of temporarily suspending all contributions from outside the United States,” the platform said in its blog post on Sunday.

ActBlue said it had “further enhanced its verification process” and maintained that it “accurately described” its procedures to Congress.

Jordan said investigators were considering additional depositions and seeking a copy of a letter from Dana Remus, a former Biden White House counsel who later advised ActBlue. A previous New York Times report cited by the committee said Remus raised concerns about foreign contributions and Wallace-Jones’s assurances to Congress, and that ActBlue’s “acceptance of illegal foreign contributions appeared to be ‘knowing and willful,'” according to a Sept. 16 press release from Jordan’s office.

“We would love to get our hands on a copy of that actual letter,” Jordan told the Washington Examiner. Reached for comment, ActBlue did not offer a response when asked whether it would supply a public copy of Remus’s letter.

Meanwhile, the Washington Examiner previously reported that Jordan and fellow committee Chairmen Bryan Steil (R-WI) and James Comer (R-KY) requested testimony from WilmerHale partner Ronald Machen, whose review defended ActBlue’s practices.

Republicans argued that procedures allowing passport-field placeholders, such as “ACTBLUEXX,” undermined that defense. ActBlue previously said its review found that 99.99% of nearly $990 million in 2023 political contributions came from donors providing a U.S. address or passport number.

While that finding addressed the nature of the information donors supplied, how exactly ActBlue went about verifying it remains unclear.

Wallace-Jones previously said invoking the Fifth Amendment was not an admission of wrongdoing. ActBlue has denied wrongdoing, and has rejected assertions that it established illegal contributions.

The committee has asked for a transcribed interview with Machen to be scheduled by Oct. 12, meaning it is possible his interview could happen later this month or next month, according to a Sept. 28 letter from the committee.