It Isn’t Just ActBlue: WinRed Is Taking Hundreds Of Thousands Of Dollars From Elderly Idahoans Using Recurring Payments — One Donor Gave Over $478,500 In Just 2 Years
Legendary Conservative journalist James O’Keefe just released a bombshell new report with his new outlet O’Keefe Media Group (OMG), where he exposes a potential money laundering scheme with Democrat political donation firm ActBlue.
The Idaho Tribune has found data that suggests that this is happening in Idaho as well…
The Idaho Tribune has been quietly investigating this story for the past several months after we found anomalous donation data on the FEC’s website. What we have found is that there are dozens, if not hundreds, of retired, elderly Idahoans who are giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to political campaigns, seemingly without any source of income.
The very first case we investigated was that of Edson Griswold, a Democrat formerly of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, who now lives in Colorado.
Edson is retired, elderly, and in 2020, he was diagnosed with dementia. Since his diagnosis, Griswold appears to have donated over $222,892.40 to Democrat causes and candidates through ActBlue in over 20,000 separate donations, according to data obtained through the FEC Website. Some of the donations are as small as $0.18.
Speaking with the Idaho Tribune, Edson’s daughter Karyn confirmed Edson’s diagnosis, and told the Tribune that as far as she knew he donated “$6,000 in October alone.”
According to the data available on the FEC Website, Edson is listed as giving $23,019.06 in the month of October 2022.
Karyn said “I found out he uses ActBlue.” She also said that she realized that Edson’s donations were recurring every month, so she “went on to ActBlue, and you have to Google how to undo it. I had to go into every single transaction in order to turn it off. The website isn’t user friendly. If there’s recurring charges, it makes you turn off every single charge that’s happened. I have all my faculties about me, and I had a hard time with it.”
The Tribune also spoke with Mr. Griswold, who was taken aback at the $222,892.40 figure. Griswold said that he donated “at most $20,000.” Griswold said that he might have “spent a little too much.” He is retired, and on a fixed income, and according to the data he made an average of 33 donations Per Day during 2021 & 2022.
So what’s going on here?
Without having access to Griswold’s personal bank accounts and credit card statements, it’s impossible to tell if he’s actually paid that amount of money, or if there is something else going on… What we do know for sure is that he’s not the only one.
According to a cursory examination of data obtained by the Tribune from the FEC Website, we have identified some significant anomalies:
Griswold, Edson - 20,489 Donations
2011-2019 - $27,054.03
2020-2022 - $222,892.40Reece, Joanne R. - 8,476 Donations
2011-2019 - $51,136.80
2020-2022 - $68,832.87Evans, Brenda - 2,218 Donations
2011-2019 - $5,139.50
2020-2022 - $36,913.03Barth, Nadine - 3,476 Donations
2011-2019 - $2,657.90
2020-2022 - $36,706.56
Here’s where things get sticky though… This appears to be happening to retired, elderly Republicans as well through the (relatively new) WinRed fundraising website:
Coles, Dave - 6,861 Donations
2011-2020 - $70.00
2021-2022 - $478,502.39Durst, James - 6,414 Donations
2011-2019 - $19,750.00
2020-2022 - $253,376.35Baum, Robert - 1,867 Donations
2011-2020 - $2,475.00
2021-2022 - $107,821.95Nelson, Sharon - 3,164 Donations
2011-2020 - $898.50 (Democrat Donations)
2020-2022 - $91,117.91 (Republican Donations)Potter, Dennis - 4,142 Donations
2011-2019 - $0.00
2020-2022 - $65,585.40Johnson, Reed - 3,193 Donations
2011-2019 - $0.00
2020-2022 - $54,699.45Cheney, Randall - 8,899 Donations
2011-2019 - $0.00
2020-2022 - $36,088.88Flynn, Dan Joan - 1,194 Donations
2011-2021 - $0.00
2022 Alone - $25,656.56Sprinkel, Cindy - 3,217 Donations
2011-2019 - $0.00
2020-2023 - $23,784.48Simms, Charles - 1,611 Donations
2011-2020 - $1,424.75
2021-2022 - $23,558.36Sanborn, Charlene - 1,214 Donations
2011-2019 - $0.00
2020-2022 - 16,753.04Larsen, Dennis - 2,696 Donations
2011-2019 - $1,813.77
2020-2022 - $10,686.75
This would not be the first time that WinRed has been in trouble because of their underhanded solicitation tactics.
WinRed was caught up in controversy during the 2020 election, when hundreds of elderly people who wanted to donate to Donald Trump were signed up for recurring donations without their full knowledge or consent, by using a pre-checked box on the donation form.
According to the New York Times:
“Digital operatives in both parties deploy an array of manipulative tactics that can deceive donors of all age groups: faux bill notices and official-looking correspondence; bogus offers to match donations and hidden links to unsubscribe; and pre-checked boxes that automatically repeat donations, which are widely seen as the most egregious scheme.”
So, as an example, lets say you wanted to donate $100 to Trump. If you made the donation through WinRed, you may have been signed up to donate $100 every month. So, your $100 donation could have become a $1,200 donation if you forgot to check your bank statements.
The Idaho GOP began using WinRed to fundraise under Tom Luna’s leadership from 2020-2022.
What makes things even more bizarre, is that according to our data, Dave Coles, who supposedly gave over $400,000 to Republican campaigns nationwide from 2020-2022, has only given $279 dollars to political campaigns and candidates in the state of Idaho.
You’d imagine that someone who is motivated enough to donate almost a half million dollars to political causes, would take a little more interest in what’s happening in his own back yard...
There are literally MILLIONS of lines of data to sift through, and we encourage everyone to look through the data for yourselves. We have sat on this story for 3 months, because we just don’t have the resources to forensically audit this data, and verify these transactions.
This is just an initial report, and we hope that this begins a larger conversation. If any readers know any of the people listed above, please have them get into contact with us by clicking here.
