‘Smurfs’ are unknowing ‘donors’ whose identities are being used to funnel small-dollar donations in high volume to political candidates through platforms such as ActBlue
Representatives Bryan Steil, Jim Jordan, and James Comer have issued subpoenas to a current ActBlue attorney, as well as two former attorneys for the Democrat fundraising powerhouse, according to the New York Post.
Former ActBlue general counsel Darrin Hurwitz, ex-director and associate general counsel Aaron Ting, and an unnamed counsel for ActBlue will be required to sit before House investigators for formal depositions.
According to the New York Post:
Records uncovered by the committees showed that Hurwitz, Ting and the unidentified counsel worked with the platform’s fraud prevention team as it implemented “more lenient” standards during the 2024 campaign.
ActBlue let debit or credit transactions occur without requiring a card verification value (CVV) until January 2024 — around halfway through the election cycle — and newer standards published last year still instructed employees to “look for reasons to accept contributions.”
In April 2024 and again in September of that year, ActBlue further relaxed guidelines, permitting between 14 and 28 more fraudulent contributions per month — meaning up to 6.4% of total donations that should have been rejected for fraud were accepted.
In June, the congressional trio issued subpoenas to former Vice President of Customer Service Alyssa Twomey and a Senior WorkFlow Specialist “regarding allegations that online fundraising platforms, including ActBlue, have accepted fraudulent donations from domestic and foreign sources.”
Initially, the duo had agreed to give their depositions to Congress, however, President Trump’s executive order on straw donor donations targeting ActBlue led their counsel to withdraw their offers, forcing the congressmen to issue subpoenas.
Last March, the New York Times reported that “at least seven senior officials” resigned in late February. The “last remaining lawyer” at Actblue, Zain Ahmad, suggested he was facing “internal retaliation” and that “his access to email and other internal platforms had been cut off.” The New York Times also reported that his messages in Slack had been deleted.
The New York Times described Ahmad as the “last remaining lawyer” while the House Admin. Committee GOP X account reported that one of the lawyers subpoenaed today was still currently employed by Actblue.
Our investigation into ActBlue continues.
Today, Chairmen @RepBryanSteil, @Jim_Jordan, and @RepJamesComer issued subpoenas to one current and two former ActBlue employees to appear for depositions.
Read more from @nypost https://t.co/nVvNydQREg
— House Admin. Committee GOP (@HouseAdmin) September 4, 2025
House Committees Subpoena ActBlue’s Former Vice President and Senior Employee for Depositions
Before the last election, Rep. Steil put forward legislation that “would have made substantive changes to prevent abuses” for political donation platforms. That legislation made it through the House but was stymied in the then-Democrat Senate.
Foreign funds should never flow into U.S. elections.
Watch Chairman @RepBryanSteil explain ⬇ pic.twitter.com/Q6D0aOzXhC
— House Admin. Committee GOP (@HouseAdmin) September 3, 2025
Prior to that, The Gateway Pundit reported that then-Senator Marco Rubio also put forward the CVV Act in the Senate that would have required donation platforms to capture the credit verification value (CVV) number on the back of a credit card to ensure they were valid donations coming from credit cards of US citizens. The bill was only one sentence long in requiring the CVV be disclosed.
Currently, at least 19 states’ Attorneys General are investigating ActBlue donations, including Texas, Arkansas, Florida, and Missouri.
In April, President Trump signed an executive order regarding “troubling evidence that online fundraising platforms have been willing participants in schemes to launder excessive and prohibited contributions to political candidates and committees.” The order claimed that malign actors break down large contributions into many smaller contributions and attribute them to ‘straw donors’ without their consent by utilizing gift cards or prepaid credit cards.
According to Peter Bernegger of electionwatch.info, the money for these donations is actually taxpayer dollars through the US Treasury that go overseas and then make their way back to the donation platforms in lesser amounts and then are distributed to candidates and committees, especially through ActBlue and the Republican equivalent, WinRed.
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
Bernegger, who discovered the “smurfing” campaigns with his team of investigators, used open source data from the Federal Election Commissions contribution look-up to find ‘smurfs,’ who are typically at least 65 years old and unemployed or retired. Through his website, electionwatch.info, you can see the ‘smurfs’ his team has found or do your own research by setting the above parameters on FEC.gov.
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