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By Dan Gooding and Gabe Whisnant
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The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) pushed back Tuesday against federal fraud charges, defending its former use of paid informants to infiltrate extremist groups and rejecting what it called false allegations announced by the Department of Justice (DOJ).
The response comes as the Trump administration moves forward with an indictment that SPLC leaders say threatens civil rights work and raises broader concerns about the Justice Department’s targeting of the president’s critics.
The case places a nationally influential civil‑rights nonprofit and its past intelligence‑gathering practices under criminal scrutiny, potentially altering how advocacy groups monitor and expose violent extremism.
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Federal Fraud Charges Detailed
Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said a federal grand jury in Alabama returned an indictment charging the SPLC with six counts of wire fraud, four counts of bank fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. The nonprofit, based in Montgomery, Alabama, is accused of concealing the true purpose of millions of dollars raised from donors from 2014 to 2023.
According to Blanche, prosecutors allege the organization paid at least $3 million to people affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan, the United Klans of America, the National Socialist Party of America and other extremist groups. Blanche said the payments were routed through multiple bank accounts before being transferred to prepaid debit cards in an effort to obscure their destination.
“The SPLC was not dismantling these groups,” Blanche said at a news conference announcing the charges. “It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.”
Prosecutors allege the center failed to disclose the informant program to donors, violating requirements that nonprofits be transparent about how raised funds are used. An indictment outlining the specific allegations was expected to be filed in federal court in the Middle District of Alabama.
SPLC Defends Informant Program
The SPLC said it is rejecting what it described as false allegations connected to the federal indictment announced Tuesday, saying the DOJ's actions will not deter its work combating white supremacy and extremist violence.
Interim president and CEO Bryan Fair said in a statement shared with Newsweek that the organization learned of the charges through a Justice Department news conference and disputed the claims, arguing that SPLC’s longtime mission has been to protect lives and advance civil rights in the face of threats and violence.
Fair said the organization believes its former informant program played a critical role in preventing harm and defending vulnerable communities, adding that SPLC plans to fight the case vigorously.
“This program saved lives,” Fair said in the statement, adding that the group “will vigorously defend ourselves, our staff and our work” while continuing its efforts to combat hate and pursue what he described as a more just and multiracial democracy.
Political Backlash and Broader Implications
Founded in 1971, the SPLC built its reputation using civil litigation to dismantle white supremacist organizations and later became a major source of research on domestic extremism and hate crimes. In recent years, it has drawn fierce criticism from Republicans who accuse it of political bias and unfairly branding conservative organizations as extremist.
The case follows years of escalating attacks on the organization by allies of President Donald Trump. Last year, FBI Director Kash Patel announced the bureau had severed ties with the center, calling it a “partisan smear machine” and accusing it of defaming “mainstream Americans” through its widely used “hate map.”
The center also faced renewed scrutiny after the assassination last year of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, which reignited debate over the public consequences of labeling political groups as extremists. The SPLC had included Turning Point USA, the organization Kirk founded, in a report titled “The Year in Hate and Extremism 2024,” describing it as “a case study of the hard right.”
House Republicans held a hearing in December focused on the SPLC, accusing it of coordinating with the Biden administration to target Christians and conservatives and suppress constitutionally protected speech. The center has denied those allegations.
Civil liberties advocates say the indictment risks chilling the work of nonprofits that monitor extremism, while Trump administration officials insist no organization is above the law. The case adds to ongoing scrutiny of the Justice Department amid a series of investigations involving Trump critics, raising questions about the boundaries between law enforcement and politics as the prosecution moves forward.
Updates: 4/21/26, 7:57 p.m. ET: This article was updated with new information and remarks. The headline was updated to reflect the new information.
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