Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL) erupted during a congressional hearing on Wednesday, accusing Republicans of targeting black women as lawmakers investigated potentially fraudulent and foreign donations processed through ActBlue. Rather than address the evidence presented about the massive Democrat fundraising platform, Sewell claimed President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice had repeatedly pursued black women with “bogus lawsuits.” Her remarks came as ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones refused to answer lawmakers’ questions under oath and invoked her Fifth Amendment rights.
The exchange occurred during a June 10th House Administration Committee hearing titled “Preventing Fraudulent Donations: Transparency, Verification, and Accountability.” Wallace-Jones was the hearing’s sole witness as Republicans questioned whether ActBlue permitted foreign donations, misled Congress about its fraud-prevention procedures, and withheld documents covered by congressional subpoenas. Committee Chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI) said the investigation began in 2023 after reports that foreign actors could exploit the platform to funnel money into American political campaigns.
Sewell began her remarks by attacking the Trump administration and portraying the investigation as part of a broader campaign against black officials. “Over and over again, Donald Trump’s Department of Justice has harassed Black women with bogus lawsuits,” she declared. Sewell then cited Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey before turning her attention back to the ActBlue investigation.
“So it is not surprising that this Republican-led committee is now attacking ActBlue and its CEO, Miss Wallace-Jones,” Sewell said. Her accusations came after committee investigators reported uncovering serious weaknesses in ActBlue’s fraud controls. Chairman Steil said in his opening statement that records showed ActBlue had identified at least 22 significant fraud campaigns, nine of which allegedly had a foreign connection.
Steil also described warnings reportedly issued by ActBlue’s own outside attorneys. Wallace-Jones had previously told Congress that ActBlue required passport information from donors using foreign addresses, contacted donors whose contributions appeared to originate overseas, and refunded contributions when the donor could not be reached. According to Steil, outside counsel later determined those procedures were not consistently followed, including for transactions processed through PayPal and Venmo, and warned that “some of the funds received were impermissible contributions from foreign nationals.”
Documents obtained by the committee reportedly contained additional instructions concerning suspicious contributions. One set of meeting notes told employees, “Remember that we want to look for reasons to accept contributions,” and advised them not to reject a donation based on one suspicious characteristic. Steil also cited an ActBlue training memo stating that “if an otherwise legitimate donor uses a fake name, we would want to accept their donation.” Five current or former ActBlue employees later invoked the Fifth Amendment 146 times during congressional depositions, according to an interim committee report.
Watch Sewell’s response to the investigation here:
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Wallace-Jones also repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment during the public hearing. When Steil asked whether she believed her previous letter describing ActBlue’s fraud-prevention practices was false or misleading, Wallace-Jones declined to answer. She gave the same response when Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan asked about claims from ActBlue’s board chairman that as much as $38 million in 2024 contributions displayed signs of foreign origin.
ActBlue has denied that Wallace-Jones lied to Congress or that the organization concealed wrongdoing. In an April statement, the organization said the disputed congressional response had been reviewed by multiple attorneys before Wallace-Jones signed it and claimed concerns about the letter were raised more than 460 days later. ActBlue also said it had supplied more than 3,000 pages of documents to congressional investigators and characterized the investigation as politically motivated.
The hearing nevertheless ended without Wallace-Jones explaining ActBlue’s handling of the suspicious donations, the foreign-linked fraud campaigns, or the internal instructions presented by committee Republicans. When asked directly whether her earlier representations to Congress had been false or misleading, Wallace-Jones responded, “On the advice of my counsel, I respectfully decline to answer this question pursuant to my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video.