WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday announced an 11-count federal indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center, accusing the organization of using donor funds to secretly pay leaders of extremist groups while telling donors that same money would be used to dismantle those organizations.
The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in the Middle District of Alabama, charges the SPLC with six counts of wire fraud, four counts of false statements to a federally insured bank, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel alleged during a news conference that between 2014 and 2023, the SPLC paid at least eight people affiliated with violent extremist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi organizations, totaling more than $3 million.
According to the DOJ, the SPLC “manufactured” extremism by paying sources to stoke racial hatred rather than dismantling those groups.
Federal prosecutors allege the organization concealed the payments by opening bank accounts for fictitious entities such as “Fox Photography” and “Rare Books Warehouse.” The DOJ also alleges the SPLC disguised the nature, source, and control of the funds in order to hide the payments from donors and banks.
The government further claims the SPLC failed to disclose the payments in financial reports, which prosecutors argue amounted to a scheme to defraud.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has denied the allegations, calling them false and a “political attack” by the Trump administration.
Interim CEO Bryan Fair said the payments were part of a “disbanded informant program” designed to gather intelligence on violent threats, which he said was frequently shared with law enforcement.
The group’s legal defense has argued that silence regarding tactical intelligence work is not fraud and accused the DOJ of “weaponizing” the legal system to silence a prominent civil rights critic.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Alliance for Justice also issued statements in solidarity with the SPLC, characterizing the investigation as a threat to civil rights organizations.
The investigation remains ongoing, and while only the organization has been charged so far, officials have indicated that individuals associated with the SPLC could face future charges.
About time.
And, it takes the SPLC’s war chest out of action for the midterms.
The DNC is already broke, now nearly a TRILLION dollars of SPLC’s money will be tied up as asset forfeiture as fraudulent gains.
Good times!
“The American Civil Liberties Union and Alliance for Justice also issued statements in solidarity with the SPLC, characterizing the investigation as a threat to civil rights organizations.” So, why does the civil rights organization, the SPLC, have $732 million stashed in offshore accounts.?
It’s good news but the DOJ is late to the party again . “Discover the Networks” has been on to the SPLC for years. It drives me crazy that the government, politicians and the media hacks are in positions and are PAID to oversee this stuff. Then, when it’s FINALLY exposed in a big way they crow about how they contributed to the discovery decades later as they do with every major scandal. What clowns!
Rampant corruption in Augusta for decades will only be “discovered” if the Democrats can’t steal another election.
Interim CEO Bryan Fair said the payments were part of a “disbanded informant program” designed to gather intelligence on violent threats, which he said was frequently shared with law enforcement.
This is interesting for three reasons. First, apparently Morris Dees is out, he used to run it. Second, does anyone have any doubt they were sharing this with the FBI during Brandon‘s reign? And third, where it would be entrapment if the FBI created a crime, is it entrapment if a SPLC employee created the crime?
Great News …..The HITS just keep on coming ..
NEXT let’s do it to those progressive clowns at the ACLU ….
THEY are just as bad !
Jeez …..do I love what trumps people are doing to clean up the sewers .