NY Post: ActBlue's Illegal 'Avalanche of Cash' Is on Ballot

The dark money flowing into the well-funded Democrat coffers through the ActBlue platform is not only under scrutiny, but it is also on the ballot in congressional races Tuesday, the New York Post's Editorial Board warned Saturday.

The Republican-held House under Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., is joining even President Joe Biden's Justice Department in investigating allegations of illegal donations — including potential millions coming unlawfully from foreign entities — but if Republicans do not win Tuesday, accountability could remain in limbo from an investigation under a Democrat-controlled Congress, legal watchers said.

"If Dems take the White House and Congress, America can say goodbye to any chance of that ever happening," the Post Editorial Board wrote Saturday.

"So it's yet another reason for anyone who actually cares about making sure our elections are on the up-and-up to vote them out.

"And yet more proof, though none was needed, that the real threat to our democracy comes from the people who screech the loudest about the dangers to it."

ActBlue has been a "money-laundering operation" that has been a dirty secret around the world for far too long, Johnson told Newsmax in an exclusive sitdown this week.

"The Democrats, they have outraised us this cycle, but we now know that some of that is not lawful," Johnson told Tom Basile in an interview that aired Saturday. "ActBlue, which is their online fundraising juggernaut for low-dollar donors. There are lots of stories circulating now about fraud. That's been happening there.

"There's evidence being gathered that apparently they're taking large checks, possibly from people in other countries or adversarial nations, and they're breaking it down into smaller dollar donations and sending it through that, almost like a money-laundering operation. That's the allegation. So and there is an investigation that's underway."

Even the FBI is investigating, but that too is under the executive branch, so the White House has final say on how far the digging will go in the next presidential term, Johnson warned.

"It's very serious: It goes to the heart of the integrity of our election system, and so that's a great concern to everybody," Johnson concluded. "Our House Administration Committee has an investigation ongoing, but so does the FBI and law enforcement agencies. So I think at the end of the day, there will be accountability for that.

"But what I have to contend with between now and the time that's adjudicated is the avalanche of cash that they've gathered, probably in nefarious ways, maybe unlawful ways. And so we're having to contend with that.

"At the end of the day, the good news for us is that it's not ultimately about the quantity of cash in these races. It's about the quality of the candidates. And we have extraordinary candidates and they're running very credible races. And I think for that reason, we're going to perform very well on Election Day."

The Treasury Department is investigating the donations to ActBlue after years of prodding by conservatives in Congress, with Democrats willfully looking away, according to the Post.

"For years, congressional GOPers like Florida Sen. Marco Rubio have been on ActBlue's case after it emerged that people whose names and addresses were linked to thousands of donations a year had no idea they'd been giving at all," the Post wrote.

"This includes senior citizens, prime patsies for use in an unknowing straw donor scheme (which all this very obviously is, no matter what the Treasury Department says).

"The attorneys general of Virginia, Missouri, Wyoming and Texas are all looking at worrying reports following a similar pattern: Single 'donors" pumping money to Dems at suspicious volumes and frequencies."

The scheme is suspect due to the lack of requiring credit card CVV numbers on donations, which the Post denounced as a Democrat-led "oopsie," suggesting it was a serendipitous fortunate accident.

"ActBlue (though it eventually reversed course) for a long stretch allowed donations to go through without CVV numbers, the three-digit combos on the back of cards required in most digital transactions," the Post continued.

"That 'oopsie' makes it easier to, say, use someone else's credit card and ID to funnel beaucoup bucks to Democrats and flout any and all election law around campaign contributions.

"Heck, it could even allow foreign nationals to donate — and that's a federal crime.

"One that seems almost certain to have happened."

Among the hostile foreign rivals funding Democrats through ActBlue include, according to the Post and the House Administration Committee, Iran, Russia, China, and Venezuela.

"Gee, why would a donation platform not go all out when it comes to security?" the Post wrote. "Especially since it funds candidates purportedly obsessed with 'election integrity'?

"Couldn't be because it wants to enable and even encourage as much donor fraud as possible to grab a huge advantage over the GOP."

ActBlue has reported funding Democrats to the tune of $2.2 billion in the 2022 midterms and is on track to top even that huge total in this presidential election, the Post warned.

"The only way of knowing just how deep the fraud went — and how in on it ActBlue's own higher-ups and the candidates themselves were — will be through a massive-post election reckoning, one that ideally brings legal consequences to both the fraudsters and their enablers," the Post wrote.