As a widening congressional investigation into online political fundraising widens, House Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday he fears foreign rivals such as China and Iran are laundering money for Democrats this election and vowed to take punitive action against overseas actors if the allegations come to light. is being confirmed.

“This is a huge scandal,” Johnson said. Just News In an interview just days after House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer told lawmakers in a secret memo that the Treasury Department confirmed it was in possession of hundreds of Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) for possible money laundering tied to the Democratic Party’s massive online fundraising platform known as ActBlue.

Comer, House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, Sen. Ron Johnson and 19 state attorneys general are investigating whether the ActBlue platform was misused by foreign actors to disguise illegal donations coming from unwitting and possibly defrauded American citizens.

Steil subpoenaed ActBlue for records on Wednesday; He said he had evidence showing China, Iran, Russia and Venezuela were abusing the platform and questioned whether the Democrats’ fundraising juggernaut provides adequate protections to prevent identity theft and fraudulent donations.

Johnson predicted Thursday that new information would be released “very soon that everyone will have to report as news.”

“Big operation”

“My theory is they’re taking money from foreign nationals, primarily Iran, Russia, China and Venezuela, and they’re splitting the donations into smaller gifts to make it look like it’s a wave. “It’s the number of new donors, the Americans, who are doing this,” the Louisiana Republican said. John Solomon Reports podcast. “And I don’t think that’s right.”

Johnson acknowledged that the investigation is still in its early stages but that the subpoena is a big step forward.

“These are all allegations,” he said. “These will be investigated and will need to be proven.”

You can listen to the entire interview here.

Johnson said early evidence showed there could be a “massive operation” to move money from illicit sources to influence the 2024 election.

He recently used his social media account to reach out to Americans. Website where they can check whether their ID is being used or not Donating unknowingly through ActBlue or other online fundraising platforms. He said many people reported suspicious activity to him with their IDs after checking the site.

“I’ve been doing this as an informal experiment with the small groups I’ve been in for the last two weeks, and there’s been success in every group I’ve been in,” he said. “I’m a lifelong Republican, and they have no idea that their names and addresses are being used and allocated to these so-called small dollar donations.”

ActBlue, which boasts of raising $16 billion in small donations to left-wing causes since 2004, has generally denied wrongdoing and said it is cooperating with various investigations.

But at the same time, ActBlue confirmed to Congress and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that it does not use CVV verification codes on credit cards to verify the identities of all donors before transactions are processed.

Possible punitive measures

Johnson said he feared liberal actors might be complicit in helping to raise illegal donations from abroad or elsewhere.

“I think somewhere in the liberal High Command they made a decision like, you know the benefit outweighs the risk. We’re going to have a few fallen men who will end up in prison. But you know, we’re going to have an avalanche of money and we’re going to make sure we win the election. “They will never get the results back,” he said. “So the situation is very serious. This has huge consequences for the country,” he said.

Johnson said he was disappointed that senior intelligence officials who recently interacted with Congress had no knowledge of the allegations or the existence of Suspicious Activity Reports at the Treasury Department.

“If they made this possible, I didn’t know about it. No one brought this to my attention. “We had to do it in reverse,” he said, explaining that lawmakers had directed officials to the existence of SARs.

Johnson said that if it is confirmed that foreign money laundering into the US political system is confirmed, he expects Congress to take harsh punitive measures against the countries involved.

“I think there will be a huge appetite for this, and I hope it will be bipartisan, you know? “I mean, this has serious consequences for the country and we must ensure that free and fair elections are of course the top priority,” he said. “I think we need to fight these foreign enemies and take the situation seriously.