DOJ indicts Southern Poverty Law Center for secretly funneling over $3M to extremist groups

WASHINGTON, D.C.: The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has come under the radar of the Department of Justice (DOJ) as it has been indicted for spending millions of dollars on extremist groups instead of dismantling them while defrauding its donors.

The 11-count indictment has been filed in an Alabama federal court and as per Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, the non-profit organization had given approximately $3 million to eight members of the far-right groups in the past decade. 

DOJ accuses SPLC of 'manufacturing the extremism'

The court papers also alleged that the civil rights group paid around $270,000 over an eight-year period to a leader of the 2017 Unite the Right protest in Charlottesville, Virginia. However, the 14-page indictment documents have not named that person or others. 

During a press conference, Blanche said, “The SPLC is a nonprofit entity that purports to fight white supremacy and racial hatred by reporting on extremist groups and conducting research to inform law enforcement groups, with the goal of dismantling these groups.”

“As the indictment describes, the SPLC was not dismantling these groups. It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred. There is nothing political about this indictment or this investigation,” he added.

Kash Patel says SPLC paid money to violent extremist groups

FBI Director Kash Patel further accused the organization of “fraudulently rais[ing] money by lying to their donor network, thousands of Americans, to go ahead and actually pay the leadership of these supposed violent extremist groups.”

The indictment against the SPLC added that it never informed its donors “that some of the donated funds were used for the benefit of the violent extremist groups or that some of the donated funds would be used in the commission of state and federal crimes.”

SPLC said 'will not abandon our mission'

Hours before the charges against the SPLC were announced, the organization’s CEO had issued a statement signaling that the DOJ was after them and they will fight back.

Bryan Fair said, “We will not be intimidated into silence or contrition and we will not abandon our mission or the communities we serve. This moment in history finds Americans in a critical struggle between those who continue to pull and bend the arc of history toward justice and those who resist progress.”

“We will vigorously defend ourselves, our staff, and our work,” he added.

ACLU slams DOJ charges against SPLC

Besides, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has hit back at the DOJ for charging the SPLC.

In a statement, the group’s Executive Director Anthony D. Romero said, “The investigation into the Southern Poverty Law Center is yet another example of the Trump administration’s extreme attempts to silence its critics. This administration’s continued weaponization of the Justice Department to target organizations speaking out against its agenda is anti-American behavior.”