By Jeff Mason and Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump targeted Democratic fundraising group ActBlue and other online fundraising platforms with a presidential memorandum on Thursday that the White House said was aimed at cracking down on illegal foreign contributions in U.S. elections.
The memo, which Trump signed Thursday afternoon, directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate and “take appropriate action concerning allegations regarding the use of online fundraising platforms to make ‘straw’ or ‘dummy’ contributions and to make foreign contributions to U.S. political candidates and committees, all of which break the law,” according to a White House statement.
The memo directs Bondi to report the results of the probe to Trump. It cites a congressional investigation that “revealed significant fraud schemes using ActBlue” as well as a 30-day period during the 2024 election in which donations from foreign IP addresses using prepaid cards were detected.
A spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Trump, who maintains his false claims that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent, has sought to use his authority to align U.S. election practices with his world view. In March he signed an executive order that would require voters to prove they are U.S. citizens. The order also attempts to prevent states from counting mail-in ballots after Election Day.
A U.S. judge on Thursday blocked parts of that order, which Democrats and other groups have said risked denying eligible citizens the right to vote.
The White House alleged in its statement on Thursday that online fundraising platforms were being used to “launder excessive and prohibited contributions to political candidates and committees.” It accused unspecified “bad actors” of seeking to evade donation limits by splitting large contributions into several smaller ones and attributing them to people without their consent.
“President Trump is taking action to address malign actors and foreign nationals who seek to illegally influence American elections, undermining the integrity of our electoral process,” the White House said.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Steve HollandEditing by Colleen Jenkins and Cynthia Osterman)
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