Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer issued subpoenas to two senior employees of ActBlue. The subpoenas were sent to Alyssa Twomey, the former Vice President of Customer Service at ActBlue, and an unnamed Senior Workflow Specialist. These individuals are required to appear before the Committees for depositions concerning allegations that online fundraising platforms, including ActBlue, have accepted fraudulent donations from both domestic and foreign sources.
The decision to issue subpoenas follows the failure of these ActBlue employees to comply with voluntary requests from the Committees. Documents provided to the Committees suggest that while Alyssa Twomey was in charge of ActBlue's fraud-prevention team, there was a lackluster approach to fraud prevention.
The Committees discovered that in 2024, ActBlue weakened its fraud-prevention standards twice despite being aware of significant attempted fraud on its platform. Training materials for new staff reportedly encouraged employees to "look for reasons to accept contributions" rather than critically assess potentially fraudulent donations.
Chairman Jim Jordan
| House Committee on the Judiciary website
Further internal documents revealed concerns among top fraud-prevention staff about multiple ways bad actors could bypass ActBlue's systems and make illicit donations. The Committees aim to gather more information on these issues as part of their legislative efforts regarding online fundraising platforms.
Read the full subpoena cover letter to Alyssa Twomey here.
Read the full subpoena cover letter to ActBlue's Senior Workflow Specialist here.
