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Wisconsin’s Bryan Steil Puts ActBlue CEO on Notice: Testify Tuesday — or Face Contempt

ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones is scheduled to appear before Congress Tuesday morning — and Wisconsin’s own Rep. Bryan Steil, who chairs the House Administration Committee, has made clear the consequences of continued stonewalling: criminal contempt.

The hearing is set for 10:00 a.m. ET on Tuesday, May 19 before the House Administration Committee. Steil sent Wallace-Jones a formal invitation to testify in late April, citing “outstanding questions about whether and how ActBlue has remedied its ‘fundamentally unserious approach to fraud prevention.’” The request follows what Steil described as a deliberately incomplete response to a July 2025 congressional subpoena. Wislawjournal

The investigation has been building for more than two years. Three House committees — Administration, Judiciary, and Oversight — have been jointly investigating ActBlue since October 2023, examining whether the platform allowed fraudulent and illegal political donations, including from foreign sources. A joint interim report released last month found that ActBlue made its donor verification standards “more lenient” twice during the 2024 election year, even as evidence of foreign and fraudulent donations accumulated. Wisconsin Right Now

The most striking development: ActBlue employees invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination at least 146 times during congressional depositions between July and December 2025. Two ActBlue officials and three of its former lawyers declined to answer a single substantive question. “Not a single employee offered testimony that could help ensure that American elections are free, fair, and decided by Americans alone,” the committee’s report stated. Fox News

A New York Times investigation earlier this month reported that ActBlue’s own lawyers had warned the company that Wallace-Jones may have misled congressional investigators about how much the organization had actually done to block illegal foreign donations. ActBlue denied this, saying Wallace-Jones “never made false statements to Congress.” The company accused Republicans of “continually moving the goalpost” in a politically motivated effort to undermine Democratic fundraising ahead of the midterms. WXPR

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against ActBlue last month, alleging “rampant donor fraud” and citing the committee’s findings. His investigators were able to make donations to ActBlue using fake identities, Paxton said. A separate DOJ investigation is also underway. Racine County Eye

ActBlue is the dominant small-dollar fundraising platform for Democratic candidates at every level — processing billions of dollars in donations each election cycle. If the fraud allegations prove out, it would represent one of the most significant campaign finance scandals in modern American history. If they don’t, Republicans will have spent two years investigating the Democratic Party’s financial backbone in a midterm election year. Either way, Tuesday’s hearing is worth watching.

Sources: CBS News | Campaigns & Elections | House Judiciary Committee | House Administration Committee | Washington Examiner