Here’s a math problem for you: 72 people with an average age of 76 made 485,000 separate political donations totaling $10.3 million. Each donation averaged about $21.

That’s roughly 6,700 donations per person. From retirees. At twenty bucks a pop.

If you believe that happened organically, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn and some oceanfront property in Arizona to sell you.

The Smurf Army

In campaign finance, “smurfing” is when you break up large donations into tiny pieces to avoid reporting thresholds and hide the true source of money. It’s illegal. It’s also apparently been happening on an industrial scale through ActBlue for nearly two decades.

Investigative reporters have now identified 72 “smurfs”—people whose identities appear to have been used to launder massive sums into Democratic coffers. The names connect to some of the party’s biggest figures: Fani Willis, Tim Walz, Ilhan Omar, Mark Kelly, Cory Booker, and dozens more.

Twenty seniors allegedly made 188,000 donations totaling $2.6 million to Cory Booker’s network alone. Ten seniors allegedly funneled $1.7 million through 73,000 donations connected to Fani Willis. Another ten supposedly gave $650,000 to Tim Walz operations in nearly 39,000 separate transactions.

These aren’t donors. These are cover identities for what appears to be the largest money laundering operation in American political history.

Follow the Money

The recipient list reads like a Democratic Party org chart: Gretchen Whitmer, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Adam Schiff, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, the DNC, DCCC, DSCC, and on and on.

The average donation size was kept deliberately small—sometimes under $10—to stay “under the radar.” The people running this scheme understood exactly what they were doing. Small donations don’t trigger reporting requirements the same way. Thousands of tiny transactions from elderly “donors” look like grassroots enthusiasm, not coordinated fraud.

Campaign strategist Jason Roe, interviewed by Pulitzer Prize winner Charlie LeDuff, confirmed what insiders have known for years: people working in political campaigns were aware this was happening. ActBlue has allegedly processed over $16 billion since 2004. How much of that was legitimate?

The Investigations

President Trump ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate ActBlue in April 2025. Multiple House committees have issued subpoenas. State attorneys general in Texas and Virginia launched their own probes. Seven senior ActBlue staffers resigned as the scrutiny intensified.

The DOJ is investigating allegations of straw donor schemes and foreign contributions. Because here’s the part that should terrify everyone: if domestic identities are being stolen to mask donations, whose money is actually flowing into American elections?

Jason Roe stated plainly that this activity involves “funneling money from outside the US.” Foreign actors using stolen American identities to buy influence in our elections. That’s not a campaign finance violation. That’s an attack on the republic.

Why Hasn’t This Been Stopped?

The obvious question: why haven’t Republicans made more noise about this?

The uncomfortable answer: some of them may have benefited from similar schemes through WinRed. Investigators report that WinRed has engaged in comparable practices, though at a fraction of ActBlue’s scale and duration. When both parties have dirty hands, neither wants to start the fire.

But the scale difference matters. ActBlue has operated for 20 years and processed $16 billion. WinRed launched in 2019. The “malignancy,” as one investigator put it, isn’t equivalent.

What It Means

Congressional approval sits at 17 percent. People sense something is deeply wrong with how our government operates. This is part of why.

We’re supposed to have a government of the people. Instead we have a government of whoever can funnel the most untraceable cash through elderly identity theft victims. The “grassroots” fundraising that Democrats brag about may be nothing more than sophisticated money laundering disguised as small-dollar enthusiasm.

The investigations are ongoing. The subpoenas are flying. And 72 senior citizens—average age 76—are allegedly on the hook for half a million donations they almost certainly never made.

Someone owes them an explanation. And someone owes America the truth about where the real money came from.