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South Carolina attorney general Alan Wilson has asked the Palmetto State’s top law enforcement agency to open a “preliminary inquiry” into online political fundraising platforms, including left-leaning campaign finance juggernaut ActBlue.
In a letter to Mark Keel – chief of the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) – Wilson specifically requested for “agents (to) be assigned to investigate allegations involving suspicious activity” on these platforms. He further stated those agents “will work in coordination” with senior assistant deputy attorney general Creighton Waters.
Wilson’s letter to Keel was dated last Friday (April 24, 2025). That same day, U.S. president Donald Trump sent a memorandum to his Treasury and Justice departments asking them to “investigate allegations regarding the unlawful use of online fundraising platforms to make ‘straw’ or ‘dummy’ contributions or foreign contributions to political candidates and committees.”
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“There is evidence to suggest that foreign nationals are seeking to misuse online fundraising platforms to improperly influence American elections,” Trump wrote in the memorandum, accusing the fundraising platforms of being “willing participants in schemes to launder excessive and prohibited contributions to political candidates and committees.”
Last summer, Wilson sent a letter to the chief executive officer of ActBlue – the nation’s largest left-of-center fundraising apparatus – accusing the company of engaging in “potentially fraudulent, deceptive or otherwise illegal activities.”
Among these alleged activities? “Smurfing,” a form of money laundering in which large sums of money are “donated” to a political candidate or committee and then broken down via “smaller, less conspicuous amounts.”
At the time, Wilson said ActBlue’s activities “could constitute violations of multiple provisions of South Carolina charitable, regulatory and criminal law” as well as violations of campaign finance laws in the event ActBlue contributions were “directed to candidates seeking state or local public office in South Carolina.”
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RELATED | S.C. ATTORNEY GENERAL JOINS CRUSADE AGAINST ACTBLUE
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Clearly, his office is ready to move things to the next level…
“Nonprofit and political entities must be fully transparent to reassure the public about the integrity of our electoral process,” Wilson said in a statement accompanying his letter to chief Keel.
Dedicated to “powering Democratic candidates and progressive causes across the country,” ActBlue claims to have raised more than $16.8 billion online since 2004. Needless to say, it had a sharp rejoinder to the investigatory escalation. According to the company, GOP politicians are engaging in a “brazen attack on democracy in America,” one which is “blatantly unlawful” – and part of Trump’s “campaign to stamp out all political, electoral and ideological opposition.”
Count on FITSNews to keep our audience apprised as to any pertinent developments related to the various state and federal investigations into ActBlue…
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THE LETTER…
(S.C. Attorney General)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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3 comments
This is such bullshit. Why can’t Alan stay in his lane and prosecute actual crime?
The Trump administration is handling this. Why do we need to use SLED resources on the very same issue? More attention-seeking by Wilson.
Wilson needs to let the Feds handle ActBlue and focus on all of the STATE accommodations tax and local option penny tax money that gets diverted to bullshit nonprofits that no-one is allowed to use FOIA against to find out what they are doing with it, as well as the contrived, no-bid “vendors” that the bullshit nonprofit’s board members and employees set up to “sell” ad buys and other limp-wristed, pseudo-legitimate services to the bullshit nonprofit at a markup of, oh, about 400 to 600%. The contrived, no-bid vendors are fly-by-night operations with no employees that are run out of people’s homes scattered across the lowcountry. But that anti-corruption effort would require scrutinizing the flashy, glad-handing folks that throw the best parties in the state and have loads of money to make campaign contributions via some of the highest priced lobbyists in the state. In other words, Wilson is great at the easy, popular “bandwagon” law enforcement stuff, but turns a blind eye or runs away if it might get some political blowback.