James O'Keefe goes undercover at DNC, confronts ActBlue reps over donations scandal

During the Democratic National Convention, independent journalist James O'Keefe confronted representatives of the Democratic fundraising company ActBlue at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago after getting undercover footage of one employee calling recent scandals with the donation platform a “disinformation campaign.”

O'Keefe approached Carolyn Schuette, an ActBlue account manager, posing as a Democrat supporter wanting to donate with the platform and asked about donations from the Federal Election Commission recording thousands of small dollar donations that appeared to be coming from stolen names or identities.

Schuette made the comment that the donations were part of a “disinformation campaign” that O’Keefe Media Group (OMG) has done. O'Keefe had asked Schuette why “the FEC website had hundreds of donations in the name of a specific person” who had never made the donations.

Schuette replied, “That is all based in, out of, falsities,” adding that the claims are “not based” and suggesting that information about donations on the Federal Election Commission (FEC) website is false.

When O’Keefe revealed his identity, Schuette would not speak to him and avoided answering any questions. She began to flee as he questioned her, at one point shaking her head to deny that her name was Carolyn. O'Keefe ran after and asked, “Why did you lie and say your name wasn’t Carolyn?” O'Keefe confronted other employees about the scandal, wanting to know why the FEC was recording donations in such a strange manner from ActBlue. 

Security ended up blocking the journalist and accused O'Keefe and OMG of harassment. O'Keefe responded, “There’s money laundering occurring on the FEC website… and we’re trying to get to the bottom of it.”

Earlier this year, O’Keefe partnered with a Maryland-based citizen journalist group called Election Watch to search Federal Election Commission (FEC) records. They discovered thousands of donations attributed to individual donors in patterns and frequencies that indicated a high potential for fraud

O’Keefe then went to the homes of the listed donors to ask them if the information about the amount and frequency of their donations were correct and all of the individuals said that they did not make the donations.