House Republicans threaten contempt against ActBlue over withheld documents

Three Republican-led House committees threatened Monday to hold ActBlue in contempt of Congress after the fundraising platform refused to turn over more than 400 documents. The committees gave ActBlue until Friday to provide the messages, including statements by two members of its legal team indicating the fundraiser was not being forthcoming about overseas donations that were illegally funneled to Democratic campaigns.

"These documents reportedly contain evidence that ActBlue accepted foreign donations, misled Congress, and then retaliated against an employee who spoke up about it," the lawmakers wrote.

Internal messages cited Days later, ActBlue's lone full-time lawyer claimed in an internal Slack message that "he was retaliated against for blowing the whistle on internal misconduct," according to the lawmakers. The drama involving Ting and Ahmad was first reported in April by the New York Times.

"On June 5, ActBlue belatedly produced a log of responsive materials that it deemed privileged, but refused to produce Mr. Ting's resignation letter or Mr. Ahmad's message," the committees wrote. Instead, ActBlue claimed attorney-client privilege over the entirety of these and 420 other documents.

The committees stated they struggle to understand how Mr. Ting's resignation letter or Mr. Ahmad's internal message could be privileged. "Neither document could have been 'made for the purpose of obtaining or providing legal advice,'" they added.

CEO appearance Monday's letter follows a June 10 appearance before Congress by ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones, during which she took the Fifth Amendment and declined to answer questions. ActBlue has helped Democratic campaigns and causes raise more than $19 billion since it was founded in 2004.