You may view and/or go away a remark for the FEC committee here.
Final month, Texas Lawyer Basic Ken Paxton demanded a Division of Justice investigation into ActBlue after discovering proof of fraudulent donations being laundered via the group. The Gateway Pundit reported that Paxton had discovered a community of doubtless illicit donations that had been made utilizing false identities and untraceable cost strategies.
The ActBlue smurfing scheme was uncovered beforehand by the work of ElectionWatch.data’s Peter Bernegger and reported by James O’Keefe of O’Keefe Media Group. The scheme includes utilizing the identities of hundreds of retired senior residents to “donate” usually hundreds of instances utilizing small greenback donations. When O’Keefe confronted a number of the bigger donors, they had been shocked to find the donations had been made on their behalf.
This scheme will not be solely id theft, however it might additionally result in tax implications for the unsuspecting victims of this fraud.
After AG Paxton’s October 2024 letter calling on the DOJ to analyze and the Federal Elections Fee (FEC) to suggest rule adjustments, the FEC has sought public touch upon “contributions through untraceable electronic payment methods.”
The general public file states that the fee is searching for to undertake two amendments to 11 CFR 104.14 relating to using bank cards to contribute. It states:
First, the petition requests an modification to 11 CFR 104.14(b)(5) to offer that data for contributions made by credit score, debit, pay as you go, or reward card should embody documentation confirming {that a} cross-check occurred between the contributor’s self-reported figuring out info with the cardboard issuing establishment’s personal info on the identify and billing deal with of the cardholder.
Second, the petition requests an modification to 11 CFR 104.14(e) to offer that contributions can’t be accepted from pay as you go or reward playing cards until the knowledge from these pay as you go or reward playing cards could be cross-checked with the cardboard issuing establishment to substantiate the identify and billing deal with required beneath the proposed modification to 11 CFR 104.14(b)(5).
The general public remark opened on November twenty sixth and can stay open via January twenty seventh, 2025. You may go away a public remark here.
Within the wake of the overturning of Chevron Deference by the Supreme Courtroom earlier this 12 months, these guidelines adjustments could also be challenged in court docket. Or simply flat out ignored (ActBlue has since begun to require CVV captures on their web site, although).
Fairly than depend on the FEC to make the rule change, Congress might merely cross the CVV Act, launched by Senator Marco Rubio in February 2023. Whereas the invoice is just one sentence requiring the CVV quantity be captured, as is the usual in any over-the-phone or internet-based bank card transaction, it has been sitting in committee for over two years with out a vote.
The invoice merely reads:
A company shall not be handled as a company described on this part until, within the case of any web bank card contribution accepted by such group, the person or entity making such contribution is required, on the time such contribution is made, to reveal the credit score verification worth of such bank card.
Former Polish politician Piotr Kulpa alleged final week that half of the US support to Ukraine was being laundered again to Democrats in the US. This declare is supported by the investigation into the crypto platform FTX and its founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
However even earlier than Kulpa’s declare, Peter Bernegger made comparable claims on the Why We Vote podcast. That’s that cash is coming in from China and Ukraine, via the US Treasury, and making its method into marketing campaign coffers. However within the course of of creating their method to a marketing campaign, these illicit donations cross via a number of NGOs and non-profits that each one take a 3.95% reduce, in keeping with Bernegger.
With the Federal Elections Fee opening up public remark for a rule change relating to how bank card donations are processed (calling for a rule change requiring the CVV quantity captured), it’s value noting a pair issues that exemplify our authorities’s inefficiency as… pic.twitter.com/wYD6aC3Mvq
— CannCon (@CannConActual) November 29, 2024
In accordance with Ballotpedia, President Trump’s marketing campaign in 2024 raised the second-least quantity ($391 million) of any marketing campaign courting again to 2008, whereas Kamala Harris raised the second most ($1 billion). Joe Biden’s 2020 marketing campaign was the best in that timeframe at $1.02 billion raised, adopted by Obama 2008 and Obama 2012 with $900 million and $800 million, respectively.
