President Donald Trump signed a memorandum this afternoon to crack down on illegal straw donors and foreign contributions through online fundraising platforms such as ActBlue.
This is follows investigations by both Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI) and multiple states’ Attorneys General. Currently, 19 attorneys general have opened such investigations, including Texas, Arkansas, Florida and Missouri.
The memorandum states (bold added by The Gateway Pundit):
Federal law (52 U.S.C. 30121 and 30122) strictly prohibits making political contributions in the name of another person, as well as contributions by foreign nationals.
Notwithstanding these laws designed to protect American democracy, press reports and investigations by congressional committees have generated extremely troubling evidence that online fundraising platforms have been willing participants in schemes to launder excessive and prohibited contributions to political candidates and committees.
Specifically, these reports raise concerns that malign actors are seeking to evade Federal source and amount limitations on political contributions by breaking down large contributions from one source into many smaller contributions, nominally attributed to numerous other individuals, potentially without the consent or even knowledge of the putative contributors. The reports also raise concerns that such “straw donations” are being made through “dummy” accounts, potentially using gift cards or prepaid credit cards to evade detection.
Further, there is evidence to suggest that foreign nationals are seeking to misuse online fundraising platforms to improperly influence American elections. A recent House of Representatives investigation revealed that a platform named ActBlue had in recent years detected at least 22 “significant fraud campaigns”, nearly half of which had a foreign nexus. During a 30-day window during the 2024 campaign, the platform detected 237 donations from foreign IP addresses using prepaid cards, indicating that this activity remains a pressing concern.
These activities undermine the integrity of our electoral process. Therefore, I direct the Attorney General, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, to use all lawful authority, as necessary, to investigate allegations regarding the unlawful use of online fundraising platforms to make “straw” or “dummy” contributions or foreign contributions to political candidates and committees, and to take all appropriate actions to enforce the law.
I further direct the Attorney General to report back to me through the Counsel to the President within 180 days of the date of this memorandum on the results of the investigation.
This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
DONALD J. TRUMP
.@POTUS just signed an order to crack down on illegal “straw donor” and foreign contributions in U.S. elections — following reports and congressional investigations regarding potentially unlawful activities through ActBlue and other online fundraising platforms.
Here is the text…
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 24, 2025
The Gateway Pundit has reported extensively on the smurfing issues discovered by Peter Bernegger, Chris Gleason, Draza Smith, and the rest of their team.
James O’Keefe initially reported on these findings and began knocking on the doors of individuals who were documented on Federal Election Commission’s individual contributions database as giving often tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars broken down into thousands of small donations, usually around $1.
These funds were then distributed by ActBlue to campaigns for politicians such as Mark Kelly, Raphael Warnock, Tammy Baldwin, and many other politicians, ranging from federal office holders down to local mayors and city councilmembers.
President Trump set to sign an Executive Order today going after ActBlue
ActBlue is a criminal money laundering machine for liberal politicians, but there is more: including to or for terrorists! See third image here on that:@immutablechrist @TheTVConsPiracy https://t.co/pR6hi9B1Vv pic.twitter.com/G0ARKGN3Ka
— Peter Bernegger (@PeterBernegger) April 24, 2025
The thread of short clips below from Badlands Media’s Why We Vote podcast in November 2024 documents some of the findings of Bernegger’s team, as well as the methods by which these monies are being laundered back to the United States and disbursed to campaigns.
Bernegger insists that these funds are mostly from taxpayer funds sent overseas, with portions being sent back to the United States through gift cards and then disbursed to political campaigns through fundraising platforms like ActBlue.
With the Federal Elections Commission opening up public comment for a rule change regarding how credit card donations are processed (calling for a rule change requiring the CVV number captured), it is worth noting a couple things that exemplify our government’s inefficiency as… pic.twitter.com/wYD6aC3Mvq
— CannCon (@CannConActual) November 29, 2024
It’s not just ActBlue and Democrats benefiting from this scheme, however. Last month, on the Why We Vote podcast, Bernegger revealed that Senator Ted Cruz has also shown up as a recipient of these smurf funds through WinRed, the GOP equivalent of ActBlue. Bernegger has claimed that the distribution of funds is about 85% ActBlue to 15% WinRed.
Perhaps the reason Republicans are shuffling their feet on an ActBlue registration is because they know they’re next.
WinRed is doing the same thing, albeit on a much smaller scale (85% to 15% ActBlue to WinRed). @PeterBernegger and his team discovered this laundering of US… pic.twitter.com/9yg7PD5KiG
— CannCon (@CannConActual) March 25, 2025
Last month, The Gateway Pundit reported that ActBlue was facing “internal chaos” at their headquarters as seven senior officials resigned. Further, the organization was left with just one attorney, Zain Ahmad, remaining in its general counsel office, whom claims to he was facing internal retaliation.
Ahmad had all of his email access and access to other platforms cut off. In response, he wrote, “Please be advised that we have Anti-Retaliation and Whistleblower Policies for a reason.”
As this memorandum is being published, President Trump is battling against lawfare over his election integrity executive order. This memorandum will likely face similar retaliation from NGO lawfare groups that rely heavily on funding from these types of platforms.
