The president and chief executive officer of ActBlue repeatedly invoked her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination on Wednesday when lawmakers pressed her about the Democratic donation platform allegedly accepting foreign payments.
ActBlue, the primary payment processor of the Democratic Party, is accused of allowing foreign actors to influence U.S. elections in favor of Democrats and lying to Congress about vulnerabilities in its donor-vetting system.
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ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones faced pointed questions at a House hearing on Wednesday concerning past statements she made attesting to the platform’s fraud-prevention practices.
Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI), chairman of the House Administration Committee, asked Wallace-Jones about a 2023 letter she sent him assuring lawmakers that the company has robust safeguards in place to prevent campaign contributions from foreign sources.
“Only donations with passport information are processed,” Wallace-Jones wrote at the time.
ActBlue’s lawyers, however, later warned in internal memos obtained by the New York Times that the CEO’s statements to Congress were inaccurate and could pose legal risks. The attorneys found that foreign nationals may have used third-party donation portals, such as PayPal and Venmo, to bypass ActBlue’s passport documentation requirements.
“Ms. Wallace-Jones, when you signed this letter to me, did you believe that this letter was false and misleading?” Steil asked on Wednesday.
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“On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer this question pursuant to my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution,” answered Wallace-Jones.
Wallace-Jones repeated the prepared response to every question directed to her, including inquiries concerning whether she knew the letter contained false statements and if she ever considered correcting the record.
“You’ve been asked legitimate questions that are intended to elicit information the committee has the right to have to aid our inquiry,” Steil told Wallace-Jones. “You’ve refused to answer the questions.”
Steil said Wallace-Jones originally was going to appear before the committee voluntarily, but her attorneys requested a subpoena on Monday that would compel the CEO’s appearance.
“We provided you [with] that subpoena,” Steil said. “You’re here today. You have an opportunity to testify, and you’ve chosen to take your Fifth Amendment constitutional right.”
Wallace-Jones announced in a Washington Post op-ed ahead of her scheduled testimony that she intended to assert her Fifth Amendment privileges throughout the House hearing. “Silence in response to bad-faith action is not retreat — it is a bedrock American right,” Wallace-Jones wrote.
House Republicans previously deposed five former and current ActBlue staffers who similarly remained silent on Fifth Amendment grounds, according to an April congressional report on the joint investigation into the foreign funding allegations against ActBlue.
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During the depositions, the ActBlue employees declined to answer a single question about alleged cover-up efforts within the organization, instead invoking the Fifth Amendment a total of 140 times.
“This is a tale as old as time,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) said at Wednesday’s hearing. “You get caught doing something wrong and when you’re questioned about it, you deny it. And when evidence emerges and questions persist, you take the Fifth.”
