US officials have announced fraud charges against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a civil rights group that tracks extremist organisations and played a prominent role in confronting the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).
In a news conference on Tuesday, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche accused the non-profit of secretly funding the very groups that it says it opposes by paying informants who infiltrated them, including within the KKK.
An indictment charges the SPLC with six counts of wire fraud, four counts of bank fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The organisation's president stated they would vigorously defend ourselves, our staff, and our work.
The SPLC has long had a contentious relationship with the Trump administration. In October, the FBI cut its ties with the group, accusing it of being a partisan smear machine.
Some Republicans have also accused the SPLC of unfairly targeting conservative organisations such as Turning Point USA, Family Research Council, and Moms for Liberty, along with individuals associated with the Trump administration.
SPLC interim leader Bryan Fair mentioned in a video statement before the case details were released that the Alabama-based non-profit has spent the last 55 years fighting white supremacy and various forms of injustice.
On the allegations, he remarked, We are therefore unsurprised to be the latest organisation targeted by this administration.
He described the necessity of using informants due to various threats of violence, referencing a 1983 firebomb attack on the group's office and repeated threats directed at SPLC members.
The DOJ indictment claims the SPLC paid hundreds of thousands of dollars—one instance amounting to $1 million—to informants associated with extremist groups like the neo-Nazi National Alliance and the KKK.
It reveals that the SPLC sent more than $270,000 to a person involved in planning the deadly white nationalist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017, without detailing the nature of this individual's relationship with the organization.
Another highlight from the indictment indicates that the SPLC transferred over $1 million over nine years to an informant who penetrated the National Alliance and provided evidence against the extremist group.
According to the indictment, the SPLC channeled more than $3 million to individuals linked to various violent extremist groups from 2014 to 2023.
The indictment also suggests that the SPLC misled its supporters by procuring funds through donations based on materially false representations about how the funds would be utilized.
In a press conference, Blanche stated, The SPLC is a non-profit entity that purports to fight white supremacy and racial hatred by reporting on extremist groups and conducting research to inform law enforcement with the aim of dismantling these groups. The SPLC was not dismantling these groups. It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.
Bryan Fair denounced the prosecutors as weaponising the judicial system, saying, Today, the federal government has been weaponised to dismantle the rights of our nation's most vulnerable people, and any organization like ours that stands in the breach.
He emphasized that the SPLC no longer employs paid informants and mentioned a history of sharing intelligence gathered from informants with law enforcement agencies, including the FBI.
Fair concluded, These individuals risked their lives to infiltrate and inform on the activities of our nation's most radical and violent extremist groups.
