WASHINGTON — House Republican committee chairmen are demanding records from a law firm that formerly worked on behalf of ActBlue but was fired and then allegedly “smeared” by the Democratic fundraising platform for sounding the alarm about potentially foreign donations flowing to campaigns.
In a Thursday letter, House GOP chairmen on of the Administration, Judiciary and Oversight Committees wrote to Covington & Burling partner Dana Remus to request documents and communications “referring or relating to the potential or actual use of ActBlue to make fraudulent or illegal political contributions.”
“We have received the letter, and the firm is reviewing it,” a Covington & Burling spokesperson told The Post.
Remus’ firm issued a memo to ActBlue in early 2025 that warned the fundraising platform’s shifting fraud standards “be alleged that ActBlue accepted and/or facilitated the acceptance of foreign-national contributions into American elections,” in violation of federal law, according to The New York Times.
Another Covington & Burling memo indicated ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones may have made “false or misleading” statements to the Republican committees about its fraud vetting, per The Times.
“After you delivered these warnings, ActBlue reportedly ‘terminated’ its relationship with you and smeared you publicly,” the letter stated.
“Because you have firsthand information about ActBlue’s response to allegations of pervasive fraud on its platform, the Committees write to request your voluntary cooperation with our oversight efforts.”
Federal law prohibits non-citizens from donating to election campaigns.
“As a result of ActBlue’s continued obstruction of this investigation, the Committees are seeking to obtain information necessary to our oversight from other sources,” the letter said.
All records from Remus have been requested by July 9.
On Monday, the three GOP committees threatened contempt proceedings if ActBlue doesn’t respond to its own records requests.
“ActBlue has and will continue to fulfill its legal obligations. We have produced a large volume of relevant materials for the Committees on a rolling basis for months,” a spokesperson responded.
“Unfortunately, the Committees are now engaged in an abuse of their oversight authority by demanding disclosure of certain confidential attorney client privileged documents. Despite the highly partisan nature of these investigations, we will continue to cooperate with the Committees while exercising our well established rights to protect sensitive privileged information.”
ActBlue has helped Democratic campaigns and causes raise more than $19 billion since it was founded in 2004, with nearly $2 billion of those funds going to Democrats during the 2024 election.
Internal records, obtained by The Post last year, showed ActBlue made its fraud standards “more lenient” in that campaign cycle.
Wallace-Jones invoked the Fifth Amendment and declined to answer questions in a public hearing with the Administration panel on June 10 about whether foreign donations had been funneled to Democratic campaigns during the 2024 election.
She separately accused the three GOP chairmen of “abusing their power to target ActBlue” and emphasized that taking the Fifth was “not an admission — or even an insinuation — of guilt,” according to a video statement posted on the platform’s website.
“This investigation isn’t really about advancing legislative proposals. If it were, today’s hearing would include the Republican fundraising platform WinRed. This blatant hypocrisy must not be overlooked,” the ActBlue CEO also wrote in a Washington Post op-ed the same day as her congressional appearance.
Remus worked as White House counsel under former President Joe Biden until July 2022 before joining Covington & Burling.
