ActBlue co-founder DeBergalis invokes Fifth in House deposition
Matt DeBergalis spent under 30 minutes before three committees investigating foreign donations and fraud prevention
AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made
ActBlue co-founder DeBergalis invokes Fifth in House deposition
Photograph: The Gateway Pundit (embedded from source)
What this story says
- Matt DeBergalis, co-founder of the Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue, invoked the Fifth Amendment during a deposition before three House committees on 20 August 2026.
- The committees are investigating ActBlue over allegations of lax fraud prevention standards that may have allowed foreign donations to enter U.S. campaigns.
- The deposition lasted less than 30 minutes, according to multiple right-rated outlets.
- No left-rated outlet reported on the deposition, though six right-rated and centre-rated outlets did.
Who covered it
Percentages are shares of the 6 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. Coverage measured .
Trust
45/100
Craft
55/100
Hype
35/100
6 sources · methodology
Thin on the left so far
None of the 6 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated left.
This story is still being watched, so it is a count and not yet a finding. Coverage keeps arriving for hours after an event, and a side that has published nothing this morning may publish by tonight. If it is still true when we stop checking, we will say so plainly.
Matt DeBergalis, co-founder of ActBlue, invoked the Fifth Amendment during a closed-door deposition before three House committees on 20 August 2026. The committees, House Administration, Oversight, and Judiciary, are conducting a joint investigation into ActBlue over allegations that its fraud prevention standards were too lax, potentially allowing foreign donations to flow into U.S. campaigns. The deposition lasted less than 30 minutes, as reported by the New York Post, The Gateway Pundit, and Fox News.
ActBlue updated its donation requirements to include a CVV number after the investigation began, according to the New York Post. A 2025 report by the committees claimed that ActBlue executives were aware of fraud on the platform but did not act seriously. The committees have not confirmed whether ActBlue has since strengthened its fraud prevention measures.
What the coverage left out
No left-rated outlet ran the story. None of the right-rated digests or reports mentioned that pleading the Fifth is not evidence of wrongdoing, a point the New York Post included in its full report. The centre-rated digest did not carry this detail either.
Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 3 times, most recently on 20 Aug 2026, 19:30, and will add the sides that appear.
How other outlets pictured it
Which photograph to run is each newsroom’s own choice. The leaning beside a name is that outlet’s published rating, not a claim that the pictures divide along it. Every picture is shown from the outlet’s own server and links to the article it ran in.
ActBlue co-founder DeBergalis invokes Fifth in House deposition
New York Post — embedded from source
How each side covered it
Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.
Left
0 rated outlets
No outlet rated left has run this story so far. We are still checking, and will say plainly if that does not change.
Centre
1 rated outlet
- The centre-rated digest from Political Wire led on the fact of the invocation itself: that DeBergalis pleaded the Fifth during the deposition. It did not include details on the duration of the deposition, the allegations under investigation, or the committees’ 2025 report on ActBlue’s response to fraud.
Right
5 rated outlets
- All five right-rated digests and reports led on DeBergalis invoking the Fifth Amendment. The New York Post and The Gateway Pundit included the duration of the deposition, the names of the three committees, and the nature of the investigation, allegations of lax fraud prevention allowing foreign donations. The New York Post quoted House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, who said, “It’s unclear how serious ActBlue is now taking fraud.”
- The Gateway Pundit and the New York Post both mentioned the 2025 report by the committees, which claimed ActBlue executives were aware of fraud but did not act seriously. The Gateway Pundit’s report included a 2007 interview with DeBergalis describing ActBlue’s fundraising model, and noted that five ActBlue employees had previously invoked the Fifth during a House Judiciary deposition in April 2026. The New York Post reported that ActBlue updated its donation requirements to require a CVV number after the probe began.
Questions about this coverage
- How did the left and right cover ActBlue co-founder DeBergalis invokes Fifth in House deposition?
- Of the 6 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 0% are rated left, 17% are rated centre, 83% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
- Is ActBlue co-founder DeBergalis invokes Fifth in House deposition left or right?
- Too few of the outlets on this story carry a published leaning rating to say. 6 of them do, and this site does not characterise a field under 12: at that size one newsroom filing moves the share by ten points. The percentages above are the count as it stands.
- Is the coverage of ActBlue co-founder DeBergalis invokes Fifth in House deposition biased?
- ActBlue co-founder DeBergalis invokes Fifth in House deposition is one event reported by 6 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
- Which side is not reporting ActBlue co-founder DeBergalis invokes Fifth in House deposition?
- When we first saw this story, outlets rated left had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
- Which outlets covered ActBlue co-founder DeBergalis invokes Fifth in House deposition?
- 6 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
- What is ActBlue accused of?
- ActBlue is under investigation by three House committees over allegations that its fraud prevention standards were too lax, potentially allowing foreign donations to enter U.S. campaigns. The committees’ 2025 report claimed ActBlue executives were aware of fraud but did not act seriously. The platform updated its donation requirements to include a CVV number after the probe began.
- How long did the deposition last?
- The deposition of Matt DeBergalis before three House committees lasted less than 30 minutes, according to multiple right-rated outlets, including the New York Post and The Gateway Pundit. The committees are investigating allegations of fraud prevention failures at ActBlue.
- Which outlets covered the story?
- Six outlets covered the story: five right-rated (The Gateway Pundit, New York Post, ussanews.com, Fox News, and The Daily Signal) and one centre-rated (Political Wire). No left-rated outlet reported on the deposition, though the story was carried by all six outlets that did run it.
Read it at the source
6 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.
Left
0No outlet in this group ran the story.
Centre
1Right
5- Another Top ActBlue Official Pleads the Fifth Amid Congressional Investigation (opens ussanews.com in a new tab)
ussanews.com — is ussanews.com biased? Our profile of this outlet
- JUST IN: ActBlue Co-Founder Pleads the Fifth During Closed-Door Meeting * The Gateway Pundit * by Brian Lupo (opens The Gateway Pundit in a new tab)
The Gateway Pundit — is The Gateway Pundit biased? Our profile of this outlet
- ActBlue co-founder Matt DeBergalis pleads the Fifth in closed-door deposition (opens New York Post in a new tab)
New York Post — is New York Post biased? Our profile of this outlet
- ActBlue co-founder pleads Fifth Amendment in closed-door House GOP grilling (opens Fox News in a new tab)
- Another Top ActBlue Official Pleads the Fifth Amid Congressional Investigation (opens The Daily Signal in a new tab)
The Daily Signal — is The Daily Signal biased? Our profile of this outlet
Not rated
0No outlet in this group ran the story.
How did this read?
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