Republican Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett sent a letter Thursday to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen asking them to investigate whether funds raised by the left-wing fundraising platform ActBlue could have trickled down into the pockets of designated terror groups.
“We just discovered it … and we investigated,” Burchett explained to the Daily Caller in an interview about his letter. “You don’t just call on the Department of Justice and Treasury to investigate everything. This is a major, major deal. This is a major fundraising organization, ActBlue.”
The congressman’s letter called upon Yellen and Garland to look into a possibility that money raised by ActBlue could have trickled down into the hands of groups such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
“If this is true, then there are Americans that are fundraising and raising money for terrorist organizations that want to destroy Israel,” Burchett said. The congressman added that he “strongly” believed “Israel has a right to exist and to protect itself from enemies in the Middle East, whether they are state or non-state actors.”
President Biden has said he opposes the anti-Semitic BDS movement. I agree. We must stand with our ally Israel.
That’s why I’m asking the Biden administration to investigate @actblue for allowing pro-BDS terror organizations to use its platform. https://t.co/K4kG4RFNKa
— Rep. Tim Burchett (@RepTimBurchett) March 11, 2021
The congressman’s letter comes after a February 2021 letter from the Zachor Legal Institute obtained by the Caller, which called upon ActBlue to look more thoroughly into groups they host, especially one called the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. (RELATED: Fundraising Site ActBlue Breaks Donation Record In Aftermath Of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Death, Reports More Than $70 Million In One Day)
By hosting charities with suspect ties, the notice alleged ActBlue could be “in violation of” several federal laws, including “facilitating fundraising on behalf of an affiliate of designated terror organizations.”
Several Republican politicians, including South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and Texas Sen. John Cornyn raised questions surrounding the source of ActBlue’s small-dollar donations to Democratic campaigns in October 2020, Fox News reported.