BACKFIRING

Dem Fundraising Platform Targeted by Trump Rakes in Almost $400M

The president has set Attorney General Pam Bondi on ActBlue to probe what he describes as “excessive and prohibited contributions to political candidates and committees.”

Democratic Party fundraising powerhouse ActBlue raked in just shy of $400 million from April through June. The figures come as the platform faces down President Donald Trump’s ire in the form of a presidential memorandum, signed earlier in April, sending the Department of Justice after opposition fundraising systems over what his administration sees as “excessive and prohibited contributions to political candidates and committees,” including so called “straw donations” from foreign actors. ActBlue, the online fundraising group that acts as the leading digital donations platform for Democrats, has described the move as little more than the latest instalment of a long-promised campaign of revenge against the president’s adversaries, with co-founder Brian Derrick slamming it as a “deeply partisan and political attack.” There have since been no public updates to date on the status of the DOJ’s investigation, for which Trump has given Attorney General Pam Bondi 180 days, ending in late October, to submit her findings to the White House. It nevertheless coincides with a more than 18-month Congressional probe into the same allegations, which ActBlue has lately accused Republican representatives of abusing to support Bondi’s efforts.