Matt DeBergalis, co-founder of ActBlue — the platform that has funneled roughly $20 billion to Democratic candidates and liberal causes since its creation — walked into a closed-door House deposition and invoked the Fifth Amendment. The whole thing lasted less than half an hour.
That's a lot of constitutional protection for a guy who built a fundraising platform that supposedly has nothing to hide.
House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, a Republican from Wisconsin, didn't mince words after the session. "What is so frustrating for me, and I think countless others — they have a right to not answer our questions, but I think the American people also have a right to know exactly what's taking place on this platform that has raised roughly $20 billion for Democratic candidates and liberal causes since its creation," Steil told Just the News.
DeBergalis isn't even the first ActBlue executive to invoke the Fifth. CEO Regina Wallace-Jones did the same thing when she appeared before the House Administration Committee back in June. That's two senior figures from the same organization — the co-founder and the CEO — both refusing to answer questions under oath. At some point, the pattern starts answering the questions for them.
The investigation involves the House Administration Committee, the House Oversight Committee, and the House Judiciary Committee — three separate committees looking into ActBlue's foreign donation vetting and fraud protections during the 2024 election. The committees released a report stating that ActBlue staff and executives were aware of foreign and domestic fraudulent actors exploiting the platform.
Were aware. Not "should have known." Not "failed to detect." Were aware.
That's the detail that makes the Fifth Amendment invocations land differently. If the accusation were simply sloppy oversight — a tech platform that grew too fast and missed some bad actors — you'd expect the co-founder to show up, express concern, and promise reforms. That's what innocent executives do. They cooperate. They point to the compliance team. They say "we take this very seriously" fourteen times and go home.
DeBergalis chose a different path. He chose the one where you sit down, invoke your constitutional right against self-incrimination, and walk out before lunch.
The left-wing legal argument will be that pleading the Fifth is a constitutional right and doesn't imply guilt. Which is technically accurate in the same way that "I'm not saying it was aliens" is technically not saying it was aliens. The Fifth Amendment protects you from being compelled to provide testimony that could incriminate you. The operative word there is "incriminate." You don't invoke it because the answers would be boring.
Twenty billion dollars. Three congressional committees. A report saying executives knew about fraudulent actors on the platform. The co-founder won't talk. The CEO won't talk.
The platform that powered every Democratic campaign from city council to the White House just sent its two most important people to Congress with the same message: we have nothing to say.