Trump Directs DOJ to Investigate Democratic Fundraising Platform ActBlue

On April 24, 2025, Trump signed a memorandum directing the Attorney General to investigate ActBlue, the Democratic Party's primary small-dollar fundraising platform, over allegations of unlawful "straw donor" and foreign contributions. The memo cited a House investigation that found ActBlue had flagged dozens of suspected fraud schemes, some with a foreign nexus, including donations traced to foreign IP addresses using prepaid cards.

ActBlue said the straw-donor and fraud concerns cited were not unique to its platform and accused the administration of using the probe as a political weapon against Democratic infrastructure rather than a neutral enforcement effort. Democratic lawmakers, including Senator Richard Blumenthal, pressed the administration on what they called politically motivated targeting.

The episode fit a recurring pattern in the administration's use of DOJ investigative powers against institutions aligned with political opponents, raising questions about whether election-integrity enforcement was being applied evenhandedly across the political spectrum.