President Donald Trump issued a memorandum on Thursday ordering the Department of Justice to investigate online political fundraising platforms with the intent of targeting Democratic Party fundraising platform ActBlue.
The memorandum specifically mentions ActBlue while using broader language in ordering an investigation into “online fundraising platforms.”
This is the latest in a series of targeted attacks by Trump against his perceived enemies, including law firms, nonprofits and former government officials. This, however, is the first time that he has taken aim at a part of the machinery of the Democratic Party. It is the clearest effort yet by Trump to use the power of the presidency to destabilize and hobble his political opposition. This follows his actions to eliminate or delegitimize all civil society entities that oppose, or could, oppose him.
A storied US agency, one that began under President Kennedy in 1961 with the aim of...
