EXCLUSIVE: Weeks after a damning report accused Democrat fundraising machine ActBlue of failing to protect Americans from fraudulent donations, the Federal Election Commission acknowledged it does not impose any specific security measures on political groups that solicit money online, and that’s because nothing in federal law requires those measures.
“[The Federal Election Commission Act] does not impose requirements for specific safety or security guardrails that political committees must use to accept online donations,” the FEC said in a response to a letter sent by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in which he demanded to know what rules were in place for the online donations received by political committees and campaigns.
“Political committees must use appropriate screening procedures to meet the obligations imposed by FECA’s general reporting requirements and its prohibition on accepting contributions from prohibited sources or in excessive amounts, but FECA leaves the political committees with discretion to determine their methods for ensuring their compliance with reporting requirements and contribution source prohibitions and amount limitations,” the FEC said.
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Rubio had written to the FEC demanding a probe of ActBlue after the James O’Keefe Media Group claimed to have spoken with some people on fixed incomes who were stunned to learn that their names and addresses were used to donate thousands of dollars through the site.
In addition to calling for an investigation, Rubio also urged the FEC to consider implementing “guardrails” such as requiring a CVV code and other security measures to better protect Americans’ bank accounts.
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Rubio introduced a bill in February that would force political organizations receiving online contributions to require a credit card CVV number for such donations. He cited the reporting around ActBlue at the time.
He told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that the FEC’s response to his letter is yet another reason that Congress should take up his Codification of Verified Values (CVV) Act.
“We’ve seen alarming reports of fraudulent donations being reported to the FEC by ActBlue. Cracking down on credit card fraud and foreign political donations used to be a bipartisan idea. This is a common-sense reform that should pass by unanimous consent,” the senator said. “If not, those in opposition should be forced to explain why they support allowing foreign money into U.S. elections.”
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His office also pointed out that part of the letter suggests the FEC agrees that CVV codes are a reasonable safety step.
“[T]he Commission approved a requester’s proposed use of credit card security codes to verify the contributor’s physical possession of the credit card as part of its alternative verification process to meet the requirements for matchable contributions under the Presidential Primary Matching Payment Account Act,” the FEC letter read.
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