内容摘要：Soon after the election, Betar claimed on social media that it was working to identify and report international student protesters to the incoming administration.

Soon after the election, Betar claimed on social media that it was working to identify and report international student protesters to the incoming administration.

in the runup to Trump’s losing 2020 reelection campaign.Jesse Benton, a Republican political operative, was convicted in 2022 of serving as a straw donor for a Russian businessman who contributed $25,000 to Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Democrats say Trump’s focus on ActBlue is a lot to stomach in light of Trump’s acceptance of questionable donations and his seeming lack of interest in enforcing campaign finance laws more generally. They noted that Trump in February fired a commissioner at the Federal Election Commission. The firing, followed by the resignation of a Republican commissioner, has denied the agency the quorum necessary to enforce campaign finance laws and regulations.“It’s telling that while Trump and his allies attack grassroots-funded platforms like ours, their own campaigns have welcomed money from questionable sources,” ActBlue spokesperson Megan Hughes said.Republicans counter that there is well-founded reason to investigate the Democratic platform, which eased some fraud detection protocols in 2024 before the presidential election.

There is, however, a political upside to investigating ActBlue. The platform has proved more successful than WinRed, the Republican platform designed to imitate it, which took in less than half of the $3.8 billion that ActBlue raised during the 2024 election cycle.ActBlue representatives declined to say whether they have been contacted by the Justice Department.

ActBlue is expected to battle any investigation. It took a different approach when a Republican-led congressional committee launched an investigation in 2023. That committee’s findings turned out to be the basis for some of the allegations cited by Trump in his executive order.

Democrats, meanwhile, areState Sen. Sebrina Cervantes was cited by Sacramento police earlier this month for impaired driving. She was involved in a vehicle crash and was taken by a private party to a hospital for minor injuries where officers observed “objective signs of intoxication,” a police spokesperson said previously. The lawmaker also declined to perform sobriety tests, police said.

“The toxicology results were negative for any measurable amount of alcohol or drugs.” District Attorney Thien Ho’s office said in a statement. “We have reviewed all the submitted evidence, including police reports, witness statements, and laboratory results. Based on our ethical duty and the burden of proof in a criminal trial, the Sacramento County DA’s Office declines to file any charges in this case.”Cervantes denied any wrongdoing and released lab results from the hospital showing she did not have alcohol or drugs in her system. Her office did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

A Sacramento police spokesperson said officers follow “established protocols” when issuing the citation and deferred questions about the district attorney’s decision to the district attorney’s office.Cervantes, a Democrat, was elected to the state Senate last year to represent part of the Inland Empire in southern California after years serving in the Assembly. She previously chaired the Latino Legislative Caucus.