WATCH: ActBlue CEO "Pleads the 5th" to EVERY Question at Shocking House Hearing

I do have a series of questions for you, but I want to make sure I'm respectful.Is it Ms. Jones or Ms. Wallace -Jones?

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer the question pursuant to my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution.

Okay, wow.Okay, didn't expect that one.

As our witness today, we have Ms. Regina Wallace -Jones, the CEO of ActBlue.Ms. Wallace -Jones, will you please stand and raise your right hand?Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony that you're about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?Let the record show that the witness answered in the affirmative.You may be seated.I'll begin our questions today, followed by the ranking member.

Foreign funds have no place in American political campaigns.American elections are for American citizens only.Ms. Wallace -Jones, in 2023, I sent you this letter with five straightforward questions with a goal of confirming that foreign funds are not in our elections and that ActBlue had adequate fraud prevention measures in place.You replied a month later with a four -page letter describing your fraud prevention policies and procedures that you had in place at ActBlue.But according to the New York Times, your response to this committee may have been false and misleading.Ms. Wallace -Jones, when you signed this letter to me, did you believe that this letter was false and misleading?

On the advice of my counsel, I respectfully decline to answer this question pursuant to my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution.

Ms. Wallace -Jones, before you sent this letter, did you believewas it brought to your attention that this letter that you sent me was false and misleading?

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer the question pursuant to my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution.

Well, I think it's important for everybody here to know that according to the New York Times, you've been aware for quite a while that the response you made was likely false or misleading.Did you ever consider correcting the record for this committee when it was brought to your attention that your letter to me was false and misleading?

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully declined to answer the question pursuant to the attorney -client privilege and my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution.

That's pretty interesting.So now you're following the advice of your legal counsel, but you didn't when they warned you that your letter to me was false and misleading.Your letter claimed that passport information is required from donors providing an address outside United States.In November 2023, when you wrote that letter, did every Act Blue donation that provided an address outside the United States require passport information?

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully declined to answer the question pursuant to my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution.

Okay.Your letter also claimed that Act Blue would contact a donor to request passport information if the contribution appeared to be from a foreign address.And you told this committee that the contribution would be refunded if ActBlue was unable to make contact with the donor.Is that correct?

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer the question pursuant to my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution.

Well, we have reason to believe that your letter in 2023 was not correct, because according to the New York Times, donations that were made through third -partyapps like PayPal or Venmo, that passport information was not always required.So what's true?The 2023 letter you sent me or the New York Times article?

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer the question pursuant to my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution.

After you sent me the 2023 letter, ActBlue weakened its fraud prevention rules twice in 2024, quote, even after internal assessments confirmed that these policy changes would lead to more fraudulent donations, end quote.Did you weaken fraud prevention standards to increase donations on the ActBlue platform?

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully declined to answer the question pursuant to my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution.

Ms. Wallace -Jones, I want to make clear for the hearing record, you've been asked legitimate questions that are intended to elicit information the committee has the right to have to aid our inquiry.You've refused to answer the questions.Are you formally asserting your Fifth Amendment privilege against self -incrimination today?

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer the question pursuant to my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution.

For the record, I think it's important to know that we invited you to come here today to testify.Originally, you were coming voluntarily.On Monday, your attorneys reached out to this committee and requested a subpoena for you to testify.We provided you that subpoena.You're here today, you have an opportunity to testify, and you've chosen to testify.to take your Fifth Amendment constitutional right.

I now recognize the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Mr. Jordan, for five minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.Mr. Garcia, in his opening statement, said we're here because Republicans are playing politics.Let's be clear.We're here because ActBlue's legal counsel said Ms. Wallace -Jones lied to Congress.willfully and knowingly misled the Congress of the United States.That's why we're here.

Oh, by the way, who was the legal counsel, Covington Burley?Who was her counsel?Dana Remus, not some Republican.She was former White House counsel for Joe Biden.That's who said that.That's why we're here.

So I just have a couple of questions for you, Ms. Wallace -Jones, just a couple.Your board chairman said ActBlue accepted up to 38 million contributions in 2024 that had the signs of foreign origin.How much fraud is too much fraud?

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer the question.Pursuant to my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution.

How many foreign contributions did Act Blue accept?

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer the question.Pursuant to my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution.

How much money did Act Blue accept from Russia?

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer the question.pursuant to my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution.

Why did your entire legal team quit, your in -house legal team?

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully declined to answer the question, pursuant to my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution.

Did your legal team quit because of reduced fraud standards?

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully declined to answer the question,Pursuant to my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution.

I understand.We won't keep you here all day, but let me just do one more.Did you weaken your fraud standards to help Democrats?

On the advice of council, I respectfully decline to answer the question.Pursuant to my Fifth Amendment rights.under the Constitution.

Mr. Chairman, again, I appreciate the good work you and your committee are doing.With that, I would yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from North Carolina.

Thank you for appearing today.I'm sorry that this has turned into a partisan exercise.The American people deserve truth, truth in everything.I'm not going to disagree with some of my Democratic colleagues that say they want truth from other fundraising platforms.I want this, too.But the fact is, these were egregious practices that were put forth by ActBlue.

that are well documented.Do you regret any of the things that you said or any of the things that ActBlue has done in the past in regards to foreign donations?

On the advice of Council, I respectfully decline to answer the question pursuant to my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution.

If you had the chance to pick another place to be employed, would you have joined ActBlue?

On the advice of my Council, I respectfully decline to answer the question pursuant to my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution.

I am amazed at the number of attorneys that are behind you to be able to coach you to say these things.That's really, that's quite an expense Act Blue is going to have.It's just a tragedy that we're here today on partisan grounds.We can't get to the truth.This is what the American people have asked Congress to do.They ask us to get to the truth.

They don't talk about money to go into Ukraine.Foreign intervention in our elections, just because of monetary consequences which help certain types of candidates, in my opinion, is horrible, disgusting, egregious, and sadly, unpatriotic and un -American.I wish I could ask you more, but I know what the answers are going to be.I pray we get to this.Maybe we'll get to this in a court of law.It seems like that's where things are going these days.

So if you've got to plead the fifth, that's where I guess we end up.So thank you for coming today.I'll yield back the remainder of the time.

The gentleman from Georgia, Mr. Loudermilk, is recognized for five minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.Look, there's serious allegations that have been made against ActBlue.And they're exceptional in these allegations.And either they're true or they're not.And this is part of what we're here trying to determine.But what is amazing to me is my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have not addressed one of these allegations.

If I was you, I'd be a little offended because not single one of them has come to your defense.Every one of them have deflected to something else.Let's look a little bit at some of the allegations.In fact, Act Blue in its own words decided to take a, quote, more lenient approach.to fraud prevention leading up to the 2024 election.But instead of addressing that, Mr. Morelli decides to talk about a Chinese man gambling in a casino.

Another fact, ActBlue took action despite detecting at least 22 significant fraud charges.fraud campaigns on its platform in recent years.Instead of addressing that, Mr. Raskin wanted to talk about some Texans buying pajamas.Another, in the wake of the 2024 election, almost the entirety of ActBlue's legal and compliance department was either fired, resigned, or left the company alleging retaliation for highlighting vulnerabilities and unseriousness in addressing fraudulent donations.Instead of addressing that or clarifying that, Mr. Garcia wanted to talk about the President's slush fund, even though, which he left off as President Obama had the same type of fund called the Keeps Eagle Fund.How did that help you in your position here?

What that shows me is they're not willing to defend against these allegations because likely they know that they're true.This is called deflection.This is politics at its ugliest and its dirtiest.So I do have a series of questions for you, but I want to make sure I'm respectful.Is it Ms. Jones or Ms. Wallace -Jones?

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer the question pursuant to my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution.

Okay.Wow.Okay.Didn't expect that.Expect that one, but I think I see where this is going.But let me go ahead and ask questions.

What role do you play in the process of Act Blue?Well, let me back up.I think I want to ask these first.Ms. Wallace -Jones, has the FEC ever completed an audit of Act Blue during the 2020 election cycle?

On the advice of counsel, I have not.decline to answer the question pursuant to my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution.

Okay, I just want to bring up, Mr. Chairman, that was a simple yes or no.There's no allegation in that.It was just whether an audit of Act Blue took place in the 2020 election cycle.Does Act Blue have an application programming interface with the FEC database?

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer the question.pursuant to my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution.Okay.

This committee just passed bipartisan legislation that requires donors to include their CVV or CVC when donating to a political campaign online.The committee originally passed the same legislation last Congress and pointed out that Act Blue did not require the CVV for online donations.Soon after that, Act Blue changed its policies to require the CVV.What was that decision connected to what this committee was doing?

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer the question pursuant to my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution.

What role do you play in the process of actively changing fraud prevention policies such as requiring a CVV or increasing the thresholds for risk tolerance?

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer the question.pursuant to my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution.

Mr. Chairman, it appears that since I can't even...Her name is protected under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.I don't think my time is going to be more well spent, so I yield back.

The gentlewoman from Illinois, Representative Miller, is recognized for five minutes.

Thank you, Chairman.I want to take a moment to highlight a sectionof an ActBlue employee training document, Fraud Prevention 101, for new associates in the workflow.Your company's memo states, and I quote, if an otherwise legitimate donor uses a fake name, we would want to accept their donation, end quote.Can you confirm whether this is the advice that you give to your employees?

On the advice of Council, I respectfully decline to answer the question pursuant to my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution.

Chairman, I yield back.

The gentleman yields back.This committee is engaged in a legitimate inquiry of possible serious violations of federal election law.These are issues that are clearly within the jurisdiction of this committee, the Committee on House Administration, and the information we're seeking is important to assist us in our legislative and oversight responsibilities.You've invoked your Fifth Amendment privilege against self -incrimination.That is your constitutional right.I'm disappointed to say that it's clear that you're not going to answer the committee's questions today.

I can assure everyone, though, that the committee will continue to take every appropriate step to attain the information that we are seeking.Without objection, the witness is excused.