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The Justice Department charged the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights group that has long tracked hate groups, on Tuesday with financial crimes, accusing it of defrauding donors by using their money to secretly pay informants inside extremist organizations.<\/p>\n
At a news conference announcing the charges, Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, said that from 2014 to 2023, the group made payments totaling more than $3 million to people who were affiliated with extremist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan and the National Socialist Party of America. The law center, he added, was \u201cdoing the exact opposite of what it told its donors it was doing \u2014 not dismantling extremism, but funding it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The indictment, however, offers little to support the notion that the group\u2019s payment to informants was meant to aid the extremist groups they had infiltrated.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors describe how one informant, which the law center refers to as a field source, \u201cwas a member of the online leadership chat group that planned the 2017 \u2018Unite the Right\u2019 event in Charlottesville, Virginia, and attended the event at the direction of the S.P.L.C.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
That rally included torch-wielding marchers chanting antisemitic slogans, and violent clashes that culminated with one participant ramming his car into a group of counterprotesters, killing a woman and leaving at least 19 others injured.<\/p>\n
The informant \u201cmade racist postings under the supervision of the S.P.L.C. and helped coordinate transportation to the event for several attendees,\u201d the charging document said. Between 2015 and 2023, the informant received more than $270,000 from the group, the indictment said.<\/p>\n
Another informant affiliated with a neo-Nazi group was paid more than $1 million over a period of about nine years, according to the indictment, and in 2014 that informant stole 25 boxes of documents from an unidentified violent extremist group. The Southern Poverty Law Center later used those documents to create a report about the group.<\/p>\n
The center faces charges of wire fraud, false statements to a bank, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. No individuals were charged in the indictment, though Mr. Blanche said the investigation was continuing. He accused the group of \u201cmanufacturing racism to justify its existence.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Southern Poverty Law Center was formed in 1971 in Alabama and is best known for investigating groups like the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacy organizations. In recent years, Republicans have accused the group of unfairly targeting conservative and Christian organizations, labeling them as extremists.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The criminal charges come as the Trump administration makes a broader push to counter what it calls anti-Christian and anti-conservative bias in the government. Last week, the Justice Department issued a report<\/a> highly critical of how the Biden administration prosecuted anti-abortion activists under a law meant to safeguard access to abortion providers and church services.<\/p>\n Bryan Fair, the group’s interim chief executive, expressed outrage over what he called the \u201cfalse allegations.\u201d The indictment, he said, \u201cwill not shake our resolve to fight for justice and ensure the promise of the civil rights movement becomes a reality for all.\u201d<\/p>\n In a video statement issued before the charges were filed, Mr. Fair argued that the Southern Poverty Law Center was being targeted for political reasons, saying the Trump administration had \u201cmade no secret of who they want to protect and who they want to destroy.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Blanche denied the case was rooted in partisanship, saying, \u201cThere is nothing political about this indictment.\u201d<\/p>\n In his video statement, Mr. Fair said that the group no longer worked with paid informants but added that those informants had \u201crisked their lives to infiltrate and inform on the activities of our nation\u2019s most radical and violent extremist groups.\u201d That work, he insisted, saved lives.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The center had for many years provided information and tips to local law enforcement and the F.B.I.<\/p>\n Conservative criticism of the Southern Poverty Law Center intensified after the assassination of the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk in September at a public speaking event in Utah. A 2024 report from the center included a description of Mr. Kirk\u2019s group, Turning Point USA, which called the group a \u201ccase study of the hard right.\u201d<\/p>\n In October, the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, announced that the bureau was severing its ties with the group<\/a>. He said the organization \u201clong ago abandoned civil rights work and turned into a partisan smear machine.\u201d He singled out their use of a \u201chate map\u201d displaying what it described as anti-government and hate groups, saying the map unfairly targeted \u201cmainstream Americans.\u201d Around the same time, Mr. Patel also cut his agency\u2019s ties with the Anti-Defamation League, a group that fights antisemitism.<\/p>\n Mr. Blanche said the Southern Poverty Law Center did not tell the F.B.I. about its use of informants, or the use of shell companies to disguise that the informants were receiving payments from the group.<\/p>\n At the news conference, Mr. Patel answered questions about a defamation suit he filed on Monday against The Atlantic over a recent article that claimed his job was in jeopardy<\/a> over what it described as excessive drinking.<\/p>\n \u201cI have never been intoxicated on the job,\u201d Mr. Patel said. Mr. Blanche also came to his defense, disputing that he had fielded concerns about Mr. Patel\u2019s alleged drinking, as the article stated. The Atlantic has said it stands by its reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n