Blue Wall of Silence: Democrats' Online ATM Clams Up When Asked About Taking Foreign Cash

redstate.com

"On the advice of my counsel, I respectfully decline to answer this question pursuant to my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution." These words were uttered repeatedly Wednesday by ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones as she appeared in front of the Committee on House Administration. The committee was holding a hearing called "Preventing Fraudulent Donations: Transparency, Verification, and Accountability,” and Ms. Wallace-Jones was present only because she had been subpoenaed to appear to answer for her company's shady business practices.

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She certainly wasn't there to set the record straight.

ActBlue is the main donation platform used by the Democratic National Committee (DNC), its state offshoots, individual candidates, NGOs, PACs, and generally any entity that is engaged in progressive politics and activism. It is estimated to have processed billions in donations for its thousands of "left-leaning" clients, but Republicans on Capitol Hill – and many state attorneys general – have questions about how, and from whom, they are accepting these donations.

READ MORE: Acting Out: ActBlue Staffers Took the 5th Almost 150 Times Amid Foreign Cash Probe

ActBlue Took Foreign-Linked Money, Softened Fraud Rules, and Told Congress It Was Under Control

Of particular concern is the growing evidence that ActBlue engaged in "smurfing" and knowingly accepts foreign donations, two practices that are illegal. RedState has been following this story closely, and here's how we previously described two of the allegations against ActBlue.

Smurfing is defined as "a money-laundering technique involving the structuring of large amounts of cash into multiple small transactions."

If that wasn't bad enough, ActBlue has now notified Congress that, until September of this year, they didn't block donations made by foreign entities using gift cards. This brings up questions over whether countries like China, Russia, Venezuela, or Iran could have poured money into the Democrat Party's campaign coffers intending to influence the outcome of the presidential race.

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Republican Rep. Bryan Steil (WI-01), who is chairman of the Committee on House Administration, kicked things off at Wednesday's hearing by stating that Ms. Wallace-Jones had been called to appear because "there's a significant concern that ActBlue may have allowed foreign donations on their platform, lied to Congress, and withheld responsive documents from a Congressional subpoena." He continued, "All three of these things are illegal."

When confronted with these allegations, Wallace-Jones clammed up and read the statement prepared for her by her legal counsel.

It was no surprise that Regina Wallace-Jones refused to answer Congress's questions. As RedState's Bob Hoge previously reported, ActBlue employees who were called before the committee back in April pleaded the Fifth nearly 150 times. Wallace-Jones herself signaled her intentions to hinder the congressional investigation in a Washington Post op-ed published hours before the start of the hearing.

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After a long blither about Donald Trump, mean Republicans, and Ken Paxton, she finally got to her point: she won't be telling anyone anything because ActBlue is "innocent."

The right to remain silent was not written for the innocent in easy circumstances. It was written for moments exactly like this one — when Congress and the Justice Department work in coordination to tear down their political opponents rather than find facts, when committees refuse to recognize fundamental legal protections, and when answering questions freely means handing ammunition to people who are acting in bad faith.

I lead an organization that processed $3.5 billion in contributions in 2024, with an average donation amount of $50 or less — many from first-time donors who simply wanted a voice. I owe it to every single one of them to fight back. The Fifth Amendment is the right tool for this moment. It is a bedrock American tool, built for when power overreaches.

Today, I will use it.

Ms. Wallace-Jones can talk about “overreach” all she wants, but the optics are brutal: the CEO of the Democrats' favorite fundraising machine sat before Congress and refused to say whether they lied, accepted illegal money, or helped foreign actors pump cash into American elections. That's not exactly the transparency Democrats claim to cherish when they’re lecturing everyone else about "saving democracy."

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(And, yes, there is a great irony here that the Washington Posts, whose tagline is "Democracy Dies in Darkness," chose to publish Wallace-Jones' obfuscation.)

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