The president plans to direct the Justice Department to investigate ActBlue, the main Democratic fund-raising platform, in his latest move using the government to target political opponents.
President Trump on Thursday plans to direct the Justice Department to investigate ActBlue, the fund-raising platform that powers virtually every Democratic candidate and cause, according to a person briefed on the preparations. The move steps up Republicans’ effort to cripple their opponents’ political infrastructure.
It will be the third time in three weeks that Mr. Trump has directed the government to target a perceived political enemy, a drastic expansion of his use of his powers to try to damage domestic opponents.
Mr. Trump plans to call for an investigation by Attorney General Pam Bondi into ActBlue, which is used across the Democratic Party’s ecosystem to collect donations online. The inquiry is ostensibly meant to look into possible illegal donations made by people in someone else’s name, known as straw donations, as well as hard-dollar contributions from foreign donors.
Mr. Trump’s impending action represents a threat to one of the key financial cogs of the left, potentially hindering Democrats’ ability to compete in elections. It is likely to please elements of his base, for whom ActBlue has become a top target. Congressional Republicans have separately been investigating what they claim are the platform’s insufficient security provisions.
For days, Democratic groups have been worried that the White House was planning executive orders or memorandums that would target an array of nonprofit organizations. White House officials insisted no such orders were being drafted and maintained that stance for days.
On Thursday, Politico and other news outlets reported that Mr. Trump planned to sign an ActBlue memorandum later in the day. The person briefed on the preparations insisted that the memorandum was different from the type of order that Democrats had speculated might be in the offing, because it related to foreign donations.