The Southern Poverty Law Center filed two motions in federal court in response to a federal indictment accusing the civil rights organization of fraud.
The U.S. Department of Justice claims the group, which tracks and reports on hate groups, misled donors by using its informant program to support the very racist organizations it investigates.
SPLC claims Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche made “false statements” to Fox News suggesting the organization failed to provide information about extremist groups to law enforcement.
One of the petitions submitted to the U.S. District Court in Montgomery, Ala., says SPLC deserves to know if the grand jury that returned the indictment was given the same incorrect information as the public. It also requested a retraction of Blanche’s statement and an order to prevent “further false or otherwise prejudicial statements” that threaten the organization’s ability to receive a fair trial.
“Those statements are false. Weeks before the indictment, undersigned counsel provided information to the government demonstrating unequivocally that the SPLC had shared information from its informants with law enforcement,” the group explained.
Todd Blanche
The SPLC has been a longstanding target of political and religious conservatives, ever since its founding to fight against racism. Hatred of the SPLC has grown in recent years as the group called out evangelicals, such as Focus on the Family, for their mistreatment of the LGBTQ community.
Targeting the SPLC bolsters President Donald Trump’s support among the evangelicals, white supremacists and anti-gay forces.
Trump’s DOJ charged the group April 21 with numerous counts of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and lying to a federally insured bank. The government also has filed two forfeiture actions to recover money from the “alleged proceeds” from its “massive fraud operation.”
“The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence,” Blanche said. “Using donor money to allegedly profit off Klansmen cannot go unchecked.”
FBI Director Kash Patel accused the organization headquartered in Montgomery, Ala., of being anything but an opponent of racial injustice: “They lied to their donors, vowing to dismantle violent extremist groups, and actually turned around and paid the leaders of these very extremist groups — even utilizing the funds to have these groups facilitate the commission of state and federal crimes.”
But in its court filings, SPLC pointed to irregularities and misleading information in the indictment, a failure to establish intent and submitting charges that do not line up with federal legal precedent.
“These particularized irregularities suggest that the grand jury was not merely misled by the government’s presentation of the law, but likely that it was actively weaponized to facilitate such charges,” the court filings state.
Separately, SPLC Interim President Bryan Fair disputed Blanche’s claims the organization did not share information with law enforcement.
“The information that the SPLC shared with the FBI over the last 40 years saved lives,” he said. “When threats and other unlawful activity were revealed, the SPLC immediately passed that information to law enforcement officials — local, state and federal — and assisted in efforts to prevent violence and stop criminal activity.”
The civil rights organization provided information to authorities in 2019 that thwarted a white supremacist terror attack in Las Vegas, the statement said. “The SPLC’s information led to the individual being charged and convicted — and thwarted the planned attack.”
The center also shared intelligence gleaned from informants about the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va.
“These examples demonstrate the SPLC’s long history of assisting law enforcement through its informant program and cut against the false statements made by administration officials about the indictment; moreover, they contradict allegations underlying the indictment itself,” the SPLC statement asserts.
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