The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is facing an 11-count federal fraud case filed by the Justice Department under President Trump's administration. The indictment alleges that the civil rights organization paid members of extremist groups to act as informants without disclosing this practice to donors or banks.
Key Takeaways
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) faces an 11-count federal fraud case filed by the Justice Department under President Trump's administration. The DOJ alleges that SPLC paid informants to infiltrate white supremacist groups without disclosing this practice to donors or banks.
- DOJ indicts SPLC on 11 counts of wire and bank fraud-related charges
- SPLC denies allegations, claims politically motivated persecution
- Maya Wiley, head of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, supports SPLC's mission against extremism
- SPLC provided information to law enforcement from informants, contradicting DOJ claims
According to Democracy Now!, Attorney and civil rights activist Maya Wiley, head of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, supports SPLC's mission against racism and extremism. She argues that the indictment is politically motivated, stating "It’s political persecution." TheSPLChas rejected the charges as politically motivated, saying its informant program was used to monitor threats of violence and that the information gathered was routinely shared with local and federal law enforcement.
In response to the allegations, HuffPost reports that SPLC filed two briefs in federal court on April 21, alleging that the Department of Justice lied when it charged the civil rights organization. TheSPLCclaims it provided information, including 15,000 documents, to federal prosecutors at an April 6 meeting showing that its paid informants collected actionable intelligence that was passed on to both federal and local law enforcement agencies.
The Justice Department's allegations include the claim that SPLC did not provide any information gained from informants to law enforcement. However, CBS News reports that SPLC argues that comments made to the media by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel about its work are "false and misleading." The organization said Blanche's statement is not true, as it had compiled information about events like the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.
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