Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued ActBlue on Monday, alleging “rampant donor fraud” on the fundraising platform that’s helped funnel more than $16 billion to Democratic campaigns and causes.
The lawsuit, filed in Tarrant County Court, points to a bombshell New York Times report on ActBlue that led Republican committee chairmen to claim the platform provided misleading statements about its fraud vetting.
ActBlue accepted contributions from users without demanding a Card Verification Value for credit, debit or prepaid gift cards before January 2024 that allowed “foreign nationals and other ineligible persons to make unlawful contributions to federal and state candidates, ActBlue went back to accepting them,” the 30-page filing stated.
Attorneys at the platform’s firm Covington & Burling also informed ActBlue officials in early 2025 that it could be “alleged that ActBlue accepted and/or facilitated the acceptance of foreign national contributions into American elections” based on other lax vetting standards, The Times reported.
But ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones had informed Congress in a November 2023 letter that it had “multilayered” screenings that were able to “root out” any illicit donations.
In June 2025, the platform’s new counsel, Dechert LLP, also stated ActBlue “worked to build and strengthen its platform while implementing procedures designed to prevent its potential misuses.”
Additionally, investigators from Paxton’s office as recently as February 2026 made three donations on ActBlue using false identities and prepaid gift cards — and were still able to make it to the Democratic National Committee and two Texas state officials’ campaign accounts, per the suit.
“This was not an oversight,” wrote Paxton investigator Rock Robinson. “It was a continuation of ActBlue’s long-standing pattern and practice of tolerating rampant donor fraud on its platform so long as the fraud stayed below the radar of regulators.”
“Indeed, despite further knowing that domestic prepaid debit cards, like gift cards, present even a greater risk of unlawful contributions than cash, ActBlue continued to accept their use as well,” Robinson noted in the filing.
ActBlue had processed as much as $1.78 billion small-dollar donations in 2025, the suit noted, alleging seven counts against the Democratic fundraising juggernaut including “false, misleading, or deceptive” business practices.
The state attorney general’s office is seeking an injunction to ban ActBlue’s acceptance of gift cards and prepaid debit cards, $10,000 in civil penalties paid to the state and the covering of all attorneys’ fees associated with their suit.
Additional monetary relief sought could top $1 million.
Paxton in a statement accused the platform of having “lied to Congress and to the American people.”
“This is a thinly veiled attempt to distract from Ken Paxton’s numerous legal and ethical issues ahead of next month’s runoff,” said ActBlue spokesperson De’Andra LaBoo.
“If he and his Republican allies actually cared about donor fraud, they would work to strengthen security standards across the board, including within their own operations, rather than targeting ActBlue,” she added.
“Our platform has done more than any other, regardless of party, to prevent improper donations and protect donors. Full stop.”
The House Administration, Oversight and Judiciary Committees have been investigating the platform for nearly two years over the “more lenient” standards imposed during the 2024 election cycle.
A House Republican aide indicated that “all options” are still on the table for compelling its cooperation, including hauling Wallace-Jones before the panels or initiating contempt of Congress proceedings.
The Department of Justice has also been engaging in a parallel investigation of fraudulent contributions and “straw donors” to federal election campaigns.
