The powerful left-wing NGO accused by the US Department of Justice of spying on far-right extremist groups has denounced the attack as purely political.
The powerful Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has been indicted by a federal grand jury for fraud and money laundering. The civil rights organization is accused of concealing significant amounts of money from its donors, which were used to spy on several far-right groups by generously compensating informants.
The investigation conducted by the FBI caught the attention of the grand jury, leading to the indictment. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Chief Kash Patel believe the conclusion of the case is clear. “The SPLC instrumentalizes racism to justify its existence,” Blanche accused in a press conference on Tuesday.
“They lied to their donors, promising to dismantle violent extremist groups, and actually financed the leaders of these same groups, even using these funds to incite them to commit federal and state crimes,” Patel added. The organization defended itself by denouncing false allegations and criticizing a political attack from the Trump administration.
Based in Alabama, the SPLC has a huge budget of several hundred million dollars. It was founded in 1971 to combat racial discrimination in the Southern states. Originally, according to its charter, the group aimed to “dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements, and promote human rights for all.” It established an observatory, “KlanWatch,” which quickly evolved into an “intelligence center” to spy on perceived dangerous groups, collaborating with federal authorities.
In recent years, it has been targeted by conservative activists who accuse it of broadening its definition of “hate groups” in its far-right extremism mapping. For example, the organization includes conservative groups like Focus on the Family, an anti-LGBT movement advocating for Christian family values.
After Donald Trump’s election, the FBI under Kash Patel’s leadership announced that it was cutting ties with the organization, claiming it had become a “partisan smear machine.” However, the serious accusation of opaque funding for extremist groups to proliferate the hate the NGO claims to combat is even more severe.
The indictment by a grand jury is only the beginning of the judicial process to determine whether the organization did indeed have the intention of “instrumentalizing racism” and whether the lack of transparency towards donors was indeed illegal. The organization’s director, Bryan Fair, justified this by stating that payment confidentiality was essential to protect informants.
