Democrats Await Findings of DOJ’s ActBlue Probe

Democrats are waiting with bated breath on the findings of the Trump administration’s investigation into their main online fundraising platform ActBlue as the probe enters its final days. 

President Donald Trump directed the Justice Department in April to look into potential illegal contributions made through ActBlue, including so-called “straw” donations and foreign contributions. In doing so, he gave the department 180 days – or until Oct. 21 – to report on the results of the investigation. 

At the same time, House Republicans have spent nearly two years on their own investigation into ActBlue’s practices. In a letter sent to a group of GOP lawmakers in June, ActBlue’s lawyers raised questions about the purpose of the House investigations and whether congressional investigators are working to gather information on behalf of the Justice Department’s probe.

While the slew of investigations surrounding ActBlue have been widely condemned and derided by Democrats as nothing more than a politically motivated attempt by Republicans to hobble their rivals’ fundraising infrastructure, the efforts – and the expected findings of the Justice Department probe – have some Democratic consultants and fundraisers anxious about what’s in store for ActBlue. 

“I think we’re all just eager to see what happens and where things stand,” one prominent Democratic fundraiser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told Campaigns & Elections. “There’s good reason to be skeptical of what the Justice Department is doing under this administration. But in order to fight back, we need to know what we’re dealing with.”

Another Democratic consultant said that while he believes the investigation is politically motivated, it could still have real consequences for ActBlue and Democrats’ fundraising efforts heading into the 2026 midterms. 

“All we can do right now is wait and see, but I think we need to be prepared for anything and everything,” the consultant said. “I think ActBlue is ready to push back, and they’re absolutely right to do so. But we can’t let this investigation get in the way of ’26.”

While Oct. 21 will mark 180 days since Trump initiated the Justice Department’s investigation into ActBlue, it’s unclear whether the findings could be delayed. The ongoing government shutdown – now in its second week – has hobbled large swaths of the federal government, and the Justice Department’s contingency plan calls for freezing certain activities until funding is appropriated.

An inquiry sent to the Justice Department on Thursday about the status of timing of investigative findings went unreturned due to the government shutdown.

ActBlue declined to comment on the status of the Justice Department probe. In a blog post on its website earlier this year, the platform insisted that the Trump administration’s “allegations against ActBlue are completely baseless” and vowed to continue its work “undeterred and uninterrupted, providing a safe, secure fundraising platform for the millions of grassroots donors who rely on us.”

“Let’s be clear about what this is: Donald Trump and his accomplices in the Republican party are targeting ActBlue as part of their brazen attack on democracy in America,” the blog post reads. “The recent escalation by the White House is further weaponization of the instruments of federal power by Donald Trump to stamp out all political, electoral, and ideological opposition.”