The review involved donation reports from ActBlue, an online Democratic fundraising platform, to the Federal Election Commission, according to Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Administration Committee.

“This investigation focused on potential unlawful exploitation of unwitting ‘straw donors,’ whose identities may have been used to channel illicit funds into campaigns in your state,” Steil wrote in a Sept. 18 letter to the attorneys general.

Steil sent letters and information collected over the past year to Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Florida, and Missouri for further investigation into ActBlue.

“The final analysis produced a set of anomalous donor profiles, ranked by the severity of the inconsistencies. In reviewing this analysis, it became clear there is suspicious activity occurring that warrants further review,” the letter stated.

ActBlue did not require a card verification value (CVV), according to Steil, which made it vulnerable to foreign and illegal contributions.

ActBlue did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.

The platform has denied any wrongdoing.

“This investigation is nothing more than a partisan political attack and scare tactic to undermine the power of Democratic and progressive small-dollar donors,” the organization said in a statement on Aug. 2 as Virginia announced it was opening an investigation.

Republicans have resorted to “political attacks and spreading false accusations” because they can’t accept that millions of Democrats are donating, according to the group’s statement.

In December 2023, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton opened an investigation into ActBlue alleging the platform “may enable fraud.”

Paxton said in an Aug. 8 statement ActBlue has cooperated with the Texas investigation and will now require CVV codes for credit card contributions.

In his letter to attorneys general, Steil said whistleblowers reported “anomalies” in Federal Election Commission donor records.

That prompted a data analysis of records spanning 14 years, which looked for suspicious trends by comparing donation patterns to open-source consumer data, voter rolls, and political profiling databases.

The ensuing investigation included consultations with the election commission, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, and the Office of Foreign Assets Control, according to Steil’s letter.

Findings included donations that were significantly disproportionate to a person’s net worth or previous giving history; uncharacteristic donations from party-affiliated registered voters that suddenly contributed to candidates of the opposing party; and unusually frequent donations from the elderly and first-time donors.

Information, including donor data, was forwarded to state law enforcement agencies due to the “potential criminal activity” surrounding the political contributions, the letter stated.

Last month, Steil asked the election commission for an emergency rule requiring political campaigns to verify the CVV of donors who contribute online by credit or debit cards and prohibiting campaigns from accepting online contributions from gift cards or other prepaid credit cards.

Steil introduced HR 9488, which would require new procedures and safeguards for online donations to U.S. political committees.

Similar concerns were raised in March 2023 by O’Keefe Media Group, which reported that some senior citizens in Maryland and elsewhere denied making the donations attributed to them in Federal Election Commission records.

Donors contacted by O’Keefe Media Group said they made political contributions to ActBlue but had no knowledge of making what amounted to thousands of donations—with some totaling more than $200,000—in a few years.

The media group found similar anomalies in data from WinRed, a Republican platform similar to ActBlue. The House Administration Committee has not said it is investigating WinRed.

The 52-page report, released on Sept. 12, was a joint venture between the Republican-controlled House Homeland Security Committee and the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.

It follows questions from congressional and Senate leaders in the spring surrounding the use of communication equipment discovered on Chinese-manufactured cranes.

The report detailed the rising threat to the U.S. maritime supply chain and national security posed by Chinese-made equipment that could be accessed by Beijing’s military.

The CCP mandates that Chinese companies cooperate with state intelligence agencies.

A joint statement about the report from Reps. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), Mark Green (R-Tenn.), and Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.) said the United States was risking its economic security for short-term financial gain by purchasing Chinese equipment for U.S. infrastructure.

“We have given the CCP the ability to track the movement of goods through our ports or even halt port activity at the drop of a hat,” they stated.

“Amid China’s aggression in the Indo-Pacific, our greatest geopolitical adversary could wield this power to influence global military and commercial activity in the event of escalation.”

The U.S. maritime sector is “dangerously reliant” on equipment and technology that has been manufactured and assembled in China, such as ship-to-shore cranes and container handling equipment, according to the report.

With financial support from Beijing, state-controlled Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industry Co. (ZPMC) dominates the global maritime equipment and technology market, the report said.

Retired Army Col. John Mills previously told The Epoch Times that the cranes are believed to be an extension of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) global cybercrime operation, which could be used to disrupt U.S. ports during an invasion of Taiwan.

“Those container cranes are not cranes,” Col. Mills said. “They’re IP endpoints on a worldwide intelligence collection system.”

The report also noted that Chinese state-owned enterprises, including ZPMC, have made concerted efforts to increase their influence through underpricing equipment and technology, making it more attractive than their competitors.

ZPMC equipment company accounts for nearly 80 percent of the ship-to-shore cranes used by U.S. ports.

Cargo cranes are necessary for the U.S. maritime sector to conduct international trade and military logistical operations during a military conflict.
The report found concerns with ZPMC, which has publicly denied being a cybersecurity threat to the United States.

One problem noted in the document was that ZPMC or its contractors installed cellular modems onto cranes that are currently operational at certain U.S. ports. No contract to install these modems exists.

ZPMC has repeatedly requested remote access to its cranes operating at U.S. ports, with a particular focus on those located on the West Coast, the report said.

That could give China’s military access to the cranes.

Another issue is that ZPMC’s contract requires that all non-ZPMC crane components be shipped to “Changxing Base” in China by third-party companies, such as Sweden, Germany, and Japan.

There, they are installed by ZPMC engineers without oversight from the original manufacturer, raising red flags, according to the report.

The installation of components takes place at or near the Jiangnan Shipyard, where the People’s Liberation Army Navy builds its most advanced warships and houses its intelligence agencies, it noted.

Another potential problem was that contracts between ZPMC and U.S. ports do not contain provisions prohibiting or limiting unauthorized modifications or access to equipment and technology bound for U.S. ports.

The report recommended quick action on removing or disassembling any connection to cellular modems on Chinese-made cranes.

It called for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to issue guidance to all U.S. ports using ZPMC cranes to install operational technology monitoring software.

The report also stated that the United States should help provide cybersecurity and port security to Guam, a strategic U.S. ally in the Pacific.

Midterm goals outlined in the report include congressional action to allocate grant money to ports to offset the cost of buying more expensive cranes made by non-adversarial nations.

The United States does not manufacture its own maritime cranes and container equipment, leaving it vulnerable. Manufacturing cranes in America should be a long-term goal, the report stated.

Potential military threats to U.S. seaports stemming from China came to light in February 2021.

The report, citing media accounts, noted that the FBI discovered intelligence-gathering equipment on Chinese cargo cranes that arrived at the Port of Baltimore.

That same year, the Defense Intelligence Agency reportedly conducted a classified assessment, finding that Beijing could potentially throttle port traffic or gather intelligence on military equipment being shipped.

In February 2023, the FBI’s Office of the Private Sector issued an advisory highlighting indicators of malicious Chinese activity in the U.S. maritime sector, including unusual visits and unusually low bids or quotes to supply port equipment and services.

In January, FBI Director Christopher Wray said during a congressional hearing that Chinese Volt Typhoon malware embedded in critical infrastructure throughout the United States had been removed.

Wray said the malware was designed to disrupt and destroy U.S. infrastructure, which would likely be coordinated should a conflict break out between the two nations.

In February, President Joe Biden issued an executive order allowing DHS to address maritime cyber threats and establish cybersecurity standards to secure the networks and systems of U.S. ports.

Aaron Pan contributed to this report.

Credit cards are not the issue. In fact, the victims whose identities are being used to funnel in donations aren’t even being charged from their own accounts. Large bundles of cash come in, then are distributed as small donations through unsuspecting “donors.” Adding this new security requirement does absolutely nothing to impact the funneling operation. So to us, this is nowhere near being a win. It’s just action so Republican lawmakers can pretend like they’re doing something. With that said, here’s the article…

(The Epoch Times)—ActBlue agreed to tighten its donation security requirements, according to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who, along with other Republican-controlled states and a congressional committee, is investigating the Democratic fundraising platform.

Paxton said in an Aug. 8 statement that ActBlue has cooperated with the Texas investigation and will now require CVV codes for credit card contributions.

One primary focus of the Texas probe launched in December 2023 involved ActBlue’s failure to require donors to provide CVV codes, which are numerical codes printed on credit cards commonly used to combat credit card fraud.

“ActBlue has been the subject of numerous allegations of illicit activity, including that its platform may enable fraud,” the statement said.

Paxton said his office issued a supplemental civil investigative demand in his ongoing probe to obtain additional information relevant to allegations of wrongdoing regarding ActBlue.

Enforcing the law surrounding elections and campaign contributions is critical, he said.

“Certain features of campaign finance law may incentivize bad actors to use platforms like ActBlue to covertly move money to political campaigns to evade legal requirements,” Paxton said.

State attorneys general from Virginia, Wyoming, and Missouri have launched similar investigations into ActBlue.

ActBlue has denied wrongdoing.

“This investigation is nothing more than a partisan political attack and scare tactic to undermine the power of Democratic and progressive small-dollar donors,” the organization said in a statement on Aug. 2 as Virginia announced its investigation.

Republicans have resorted to “political attacks and spreading false accusations” because they can’t accept that millions of Democrats are donating, according to the group’s statement.

ActBlue did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.

On the federal level, Rep. Bryan Steil, (R-Wis.) chairman of the House Administration Committee, initiated a probe into ActBlue last fall amid allegations it facilitated illegal contributions to political committees nationwide.

In an Aug. 5 news release, Steil asked the FEC to require political campaigns to verify online donors’ CVV codes and stop taking donations via prepaid credit cards and gift cards.

In March 2023, O’Keefe Media Group reported that senior citizens in Maryland and elsewhere denied making all the donations attributed to them in Federal Election Commission records.

Donors contacted by O’Keefe Media Group said they made political contributions to ActBlue but had no knowledge of making what amounted to thousands of donations—with some totaling more than $200,000— in a few years.

The media group found similar anomalies in data from WinRed, a Republican platform similar to ActBlue. The House Administration Committee does not appear to be investigating the WinRed fundraising organization.

The Associated Press and Epoch Times reporter Samantha Flom contributed to this report.

At the time, it was accepted that people who suffered from what is now called “gender dysphoria” weren’t suited for military duty. But in today’s military, Klinger would be considered “transgender” or “gender-nonconforming” and would be accepted openly without fear of dismissal.

That’s been the case for pediatrician Rachel Levine, a man who identifies as a woman. In 2021, Levine was named President Joe Biden’s assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Levine began wearing a skirted military uniform after being ceremonially sworn in as a four-star admiral. That makes Levine the highest-ranking official in the U.S. Public Health Services Commissioned Corps. But that doesn’t change what one former Army neuropsychologist considers to be serious issues with allowing those with gender dysphoria into the military.

Transgender soldiers taking hormones are more likely to suffer from mood swings and health problems, making them a higher mission risk when deployed, according to Alan Hopewell, a neuropsychologist in Fort Worth, Texas. The effects of medication taken by “sexually confused individuals” on military induction and retention could be significant, Hopewell told The Epoch Times.

“Nobody has addressed the medication issue,” he said.

Department of Defense officials didn’t respond by press time to a request for comment about whether the effects of transgender treatments on soldiers had been studied.

A large Danish transgender suicide and mortality study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on June 27 showed that transgender individuals had “significantly higher rates of suicide attempt, suicide mortality, suicide-unrelated mortality, and all-cause mortality compared with the non-transgender population.”

Fit to Serve?

Hopewell was asked to write about the issue for Combat Stress magazine. He is a retired U.S. Army major, and he was awarded the Bronze Star as a prescribing psychologist in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Under the Biden administration, the U.S. Army changed its rules in 2021 to allow those with gender dysphoria—confusion and distress over biological sex—to serve.

Gender identity would “no longer be a basis for involuntary separation or military discharge, denied reenlistment or continuation of service, or subjected to adverse action or mistreatment,” according to an explanation of the policy changes on the U.S. Army website.

As a neuropsychologist able to write prescriptions, Hopewell spent much of his career determining whether soldiers were fit to serve in the Army. While the military is allowing transgender personnel, it appears no studies have been done on how the prescription drugs that are needed to maintain a “gender transition” may affect combat readiness, he said.

As a general rule, Army soldiers who need more sophisticated health monitoring can’t be deployed on a mission to a place where medical access is limited, he said. Army policy requires deployed soldiers to be treatable by a general practitioner because specialized care isn’t available in places such as Iraq, where he served, he said.

Hopewell pointed to testimony from transgender patients before the Texas Legislature this spring—one testified that receiving care from anyone other than an endocrinologist was difficult.

Medications that transgender patients need could even cause health and mental problems, he said. Testosterone, the male hormone used to help women appear more masculine, has been connected to sudden outbursts of intense anger termed “roid rage.”

Transgender patients take “massive” doses of testosterone or estrogen, which disrupt brain function and the entire physical system of the body, he said.

“There are substantial issues” that likely affect transgender people who join the military, Hopewell said.

“I’m not saying that nobody [transgender] could serve. But we have to recognize that this is a very complicated, serious issue and many of these people aren’t going to be able to be retained.”

Challenging, Expensive Medical Needs

And even if they are allowed to serve, it could take significant medical resources to deal with transgender medical needs, he said.

High doses of hormones have contributed to erratic behavior exhibited by some gender dysphoric people, he said, and Army medics aren’t equipped to deal with such issues in the field. But some military officials, such as Coast Guard Capt. Jay Caputo, have dismissed medication concerns surrounding transgender soldiers.

Hormone treatment for transgender soldiers is no different from birth control pills for female soldiers, Caputo wrote in a December 2017 article published by the U.S. Naval Institute magazine.

“Military members deploy worldwide every day while taking the same medications transgender persons use, just for different reasons,” Caputo wrote. “While the situation is not ideal, it would not limit a person’s ability to perform their duties.”

Caputo, a transgender service member who has served openly since June 2017, chalked up resistance to transgender soldiers to “transphobia.”

“Many do not understand what it means to be transgender,” Caputo wrote. “They think it is a mental illness (it is not). They think it is a choice (it is not). They think the costs are exorbitant (they are not). They worry transgender persons will flood into the military for a taxpayer-funded sex change (not realistic). Once the myths are debunked and the facts established, what is left?”

Hopewell, who treated people with gender dysphoria decades ago, disagrees. Patients he saw in the 1970s while working at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston struggled with mental illness, he said.

Transgender patients often have other mental issues, such as depression and anxiety, Hopewell said, and giving hormones to a person already under mental stress could produce adverse outcomes. Testosterone abuse in weightlifting and bodybuilding circles brought attention to the issue when a law against steroid use was passed in 1990.

As Caputo pointed out, critics of allowing transgender people to serve in the military have speculated that many join for free sex-change operations and hormones and that that would burden the health care system for the military.

The U.S. Department of Defense spent $11.6 million on psychotherapy for service members with gender dysphoria from Jan. 1, 2016, to May 14, 2021, according to Military.com. Within the department, 637 service members received hormone therapy for gender dysphoria during the same time at a cost of $340,000. And there were 243 “gender-transition” surgeries, performed at a cost of $3.1 million.

The Pentagon’s total annual medical budget for health care programs in 2016 was $33.5 billion. The proposed budget for fiscal 2022 called for $35.6 billion in discretionary spending for health care, according to the website, which is run by a private company that tracks news on all branches of the U.S. military.

Gender-Altering Care for Veterans

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) also appears poised to cover gender transition surgery under a new policy being reviewed by VA Secretary Denis McDonough. But resistance to the policy change is building.

In June, the Congressional House Appropriations Committee crafted a budget prohibiting the use of federal dollars for gender-transition hormones and surgeries at VA facilities.

It would be hard to prove that gender-confused people sign up for the military to get sex-change operations and treatment paid for at taxpayer expense, Hopewell said. Yet once they’re in the military, their ongoing care would be covered under the Veterans Administration, including after discharge.

“So the reality is that we’re going to have a tremendous cohort of people that maybe come in for a year” and get care for a lifetime, he said.

Article cross-posted from our premium news partners at The Epoch Times.

While the 25-page report from the Texas State Fire Marshal said no foul play was involved in the record-setting fire in the state’s panhandle, questions about the cause linger.

The April 10 blaze at the South Fork Dairy in Demmitt, Texas, killed almost 18,000 dairy cows and critically injured one employee, who later recovered, according to the Castro County Sheriff’s Office.

South Fork Dairy was one of the largest dairy farms in the country, located about 75 miles northwest of Lubbock.

The fire marshal report obtained through an open record request said the cause of the inferno that created a large black plume of smoke high over the Texas prairie was caused by an engine fire in a manure vacuum truck.

The fire was so hot that metal beams were warped in places. From the structure’s exterior, investigators found dead cattle “three to four deep.”

The fire was mentioned on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” before Fox News canceled this popular news host. Carlson began reporting on a slate of fires at food processing plants and livestock deaths by fire in 2022 and suggested the events might be connected as part of a conspiracy to damage the nation’s food supply.

Fires have killed many thousands of chickens and cattle across America, prompting widespread concerns about food security.

“It looks like terrorism,” Carlson said on his show after the massive fire at the South Fork Dairy. “Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t. But maybe someone should explain how it isn’t.”

Not Eco-Terrorism

Several weeks later, the Texas Fire Marshal’s Office called the dairy blaze accidental. But the official report noted something unusual. A second Mensch manure vacuum truck—the same make and model as the one used inside the barn at the time of the fire—had previously burned due to an engine fire.

The investigation report noted that the second truck was parked outside the east side of the barn near a generator, where it had remained undisturbed since its engine caught fire. Local news reports cited a Texas State Fire Marshal’s news release saying that a third vacuum truck fire had occurred at another dairy. The statement gave no further detail.

The agency’s news release stressed that no foul play was indicated, and the incident was not a “terroristic attack, or any type of event caused to interrupt the milk supply.”

Yet the vacuum trucks have no history of malfunctioning, according to a written statement from Mensch Manufacturing in Hastings, Michigan, to The Epoch Times.

“No one has identified any issue with the machine, and we are unaware of any issue with the machine that would have caused a fire,” the statement reads. “In our nearly four decades of operation, we have had no claims about defective equipment that led to a fire.”

Deadliest Barn Fire for Cattle

The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), which keeps records of barn fires and farm animal deaths, ranked the South Fork Dairy fire the deadliest for cattle since the agency began tracking barn fires in 2013.

Livestock deaths from fires have been increasing, a recent AWI study shows. From 2018-2021, 539 fires killed nearly 3 million animals, researchers found.

Allie Granger is a farm animal program policy associate at AWI. The institute has never seen a pattern of engine fires like those described at South Fork Dairy, she said.

“It’s a very bizarre situation that there were two fires on this one particular operation involving the same make and model” truck, Granger said. “And then [there’s] the third incident that we’re hearing about. It does seem strange.”

But Granger said she doesn’t think the fire at South Fork Dairy was due to foul play. The cause of barn fires often remains unknown because there’s no mandatory reporting requirement, she said.

“For the incidents where we do know the cause, the majority usually has to do with heating equipment,” she said.

On more extensive farm operations, a leading cause of fires is electrical malfunction, she said.

Barn fires happen most often in the Upper Midwest and Northeast, according to another AWI report. The states with the most barn fires were New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, researchers found.

More than twice as many barn fires occurred in winter, as compared to summer, according to data.

And though some have speculated that the cause of barn fires is connected with threats to food security, barn fires happen frequently and normally receive little attention, Granger said.

Fire Started in the Engine Compartment 

Fire investigators noted in their report they could not find any “recalls or information related to fires involving Mensch vehicles other than those that have occurred in Castro County.”

The deadly fire inside the barn originated in the engine compartment of the Mensch operating at the north end of the 2-million-square-foot structure, state investigators wrote.

The worker told investigators he was operating the vacuum when he saw what he thought was steam coming from under the hood.

When he saw it was on fire, he tried to drive the machine out of the barn but couldn’t, the report said. So he tried to put out the fire with two fire extinguishers.

Other employees ran to get more extinguishers. But when they returned, the fire was too big to control, they told investigators.

“The exact failure was not determined, but there was no intentional act to cause a failure found. No other ignition sources were found in the area of origin,” the report concluded.

Fire Could Change the Dairy Industry

The State Fire Marshal report noted that insurance companies would investigate the fire further.

And Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said in a news release that it was necessary to understand what happened, noting there are “lessons to be learned” and that the impact of the fire could influence “the industry itself.”

“Once we know the cause and the facts surrounding this tragedy, we will make sure the public is fully informed—so tragedies like this can be avoided in the future,” Miller said in the written statement.

He did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The Epoch Times. Additionally, the owner of South Fork Dairy did not immediately return a request for comment.

Article cross-posted from our premium news partners at The Epoch Times.