Trump Administration Indicts Critic: Why SPLC May Have Been a Target
Exposing Stephen Miller's white nationalist ties, revealing Tom Homan's meetings with a Proud Boys leader, and so much more.
“There is nothing political about this indictment or this investigation.”
That was what Acting U.S. Attorney Todd Blanche claimed Tuesday as he ceremoniously announced the indictment of another Trump administration foe—this time, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the civil rights group that has battled white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and other forms of right-wing extremism.
To be clear, what the Department of Justice is doing is going after the money of a group that has been highly critical of the Trump administration.
Time will tell how much meat there is on the bones of those charges.
Still, there are plenty of reasons that I will detail below why the SPLC has been a thorn in the side of President Donald Trump and his associates—and why they might have been motivated to try to take the organization down.
But, first, in case you missed it…
In a news conference in Washington, Blanche, and FBI Director Kash Patel announced that a federal grand jury in Montgomery, Alabama, had indicted the SPLC on 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
A Department of Justice news release quoted Blanche, accusing the SPLC of “manufacturing racism to justify its existence.” Calling SPLC a “fraudulent organization,” Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer added, “Using donor money to allegedly profit off Klansmen cannot go unchecked.”
Patel said the group had engaged “in a massive fraud operation.”
“They lied to their donors, vowing to dismantle violent extremist groups, and actually turned around and paid the leaders of these very extremist groups—even utilizing the funds to have these groups facilitate the commission of state and federal crimes,” the FBI director claimed.
In fact, the indictment itself refers to the people paid by SPLC as “informants” and “field sources,” claiming the group “secretly funneled more than $3 million in SPLC funds” to those sources using bank accounts in fictitious names. Those payments allegedly occurred over a period of 10 years.
It alleges that someone identified as “Employee 1”—who, by the way, is not charged—falsely claimed in bank documents to be the sole proprietor of those fictitious companies that were used to disguise the payments.
Was someone potentially sloppy in how they implemented the informant program? Perhaps.
Was it for the sinister motives claimed by Blanche and Patel? That is far less clear from reading the indictment.
For example, one of SPLC’s informants, the indictment says, “was a member of the online leadership chat group that planned the 2017 ‘Unite the Right’ event in Charlottesville, Virginia.” It says the source made “racist postings under the supervision of the SPLC” and helped to coordinate transportation to the event.
It does not say how high up the informant was in the organization, nor that he did anything illegal in the process.
In another case, the DOJ says SPLC paid a former chairman of the neo-Nazi National Alliance—at the same time he was listed in an “Extremist File” on the SPLC website. What is missing is an explanation about whether the group might have eventually turned him and used him to gather new intelligence.
Still, a close reading of that indictment reveals that it does NOT contain any allegation that the Southern Poverty Law Center ever encouraged its sources to “manufacture racism,” as Blanche claimed in his news conference.
On the contrary, the indictment notes one situation—going back 12 years to find an example portrayed as sinister—where one of SPLC’s sources “stole 25 boxes of documents” from what it admits was “a violent extremist group.”
Those documents, according to the indictment, were later used as a basis for a story published on the SPLC’s HateWatch website about the group’s activities.
In fact, in a video released the day before the indictment, SPLC insisted that what it did was entirely consistent with its mission to disrupt hate.
Calling it a “past practice,” SPLC Interim President and CEO Bryan Fair said the group had paid informants—by the way, just like the FBI does—to provide information that it could then use against those hate groups.
“This use of informants was necessary because we are no stranger to threats of violence,” Fair said. “In 1983, our offices were firebombed and, in the years since, there have been countless credible threats against our staff.”
Information from those informants, Fair said, was often shared with law enforcement, including the FBI, although the practice was not publicized “to protect the identity and safety of the informants and their families.”
“There is no question,” Fair said, “that what we learned from the informants saved lives.”
My personal experience
From my own experience, there is absolutely nothing that I have ever seen that would suggest there is anything “fraudulent” about the group itself.
Instead, the incredibly passionate people at the Southern Poverty Law Center have been an enormous asset to me in my own investigation of white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and other hate groups.
When threats have been posted online against me or my family, SPLC staff have been the first to call to alert me of the danger.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates: Confronting Hate
SPLC is also now spearheading two federal lawsuits against members of the Goyim Defense League, the same group that lashed out at me late last year. One lawsuit was filed on behalf of a Nashville bar employee who was violently assaulted by GDL members in July 2024; the other lawsuit represents Nashville’s Gordon Jewish Community Center, which was also targeted by the group.
That follows a long history of the SPLC using litigation to bankrupt the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups who have targeted innocent Americans.
Still, back in October, Patel cut ties with SPLC, saying it had “long ago abandoned civil rights work and turned into a partisan smear machine.” He also severed the bureau’s relationship with the Anti-Defamation League.
Admittedly, the Southern Poverty Law Center has in the past been accused of being too heavy-handed in its designation of some conservatives under the umbrella of “hate”—and it has on occasion apologized. Some of the criticism, including internal criticism from its own staff, was completely warranted.
But some of the accusations against the group have also been overblown and appear to be equally motivated by partisanship.
For example, critics lashed out at the FBI’s Richmond office for relying on SPLC research for an intelligence report that was characterized as being anti-Catholic.
In fact, the SPLC had warned about an antisemitic splinter movement that rejects the papacy and promotes “works associated with antisemitic violence.” The FBI intelligence was compiled as a result of an investigation of a self-described “Fascist Catholic” who appeared to be preparing for acts of violence.
That’s the part that I bet you’ve not heard from any other news source!
The rest of the story…
All of this comes from a presidential administration that has pardoned January 6 rioters who attacked Capitol police, as well as swindlers who were convicted of engaging in what were truly massive frauds.
So why might the Trump administration have an interest in targeting the SPLC and going after its money?
A few examples for your consideration:
In 2019, the Southern Poverty Law Center obtained a cache of emails revealing how White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller had “promoted white nationalist literature, pushed racist immigration stories, and obsessed over the loss of Confederate symbols after Dylann Roof’s murderous rampage.”
The next year, SPLC ”released a new Extremist File on Stephen Miller.” That file, it said, “documents not only the findings in the leaked emails that revealed his alignment with white nationalist thought and far-right extremism, but also digs further into his background, including Miller’s ties to white nationalist Richard Spencer and his work with far-right hate groups while studying at Duke University….”
Last year, SPLC reported that “the head of President Donald Trump’s immigration policy, Tom Homan, appears to have met with an associate of the Proud Boys on at least four separate occasions. At least one of these instances was a private meeting held in Chicago after the 2024 presidential election to talk about deportations.”
In addition, the group has noted that “Patel has repeatedly appeared on podcasts and at events alongside racists and antisemites.” He appeared at least six times on the podcast of antisemite Stew Peters.” SPLC noted, “The podcast host has engaged in Holocaust denial… promoted the white supremacist ‘great replacement theory’… and called for the executions of Anthony Fauci, Hunter Biden, and Alejandro Mayorkas.”
SPLC opposed the current FBI director’s nomination, writing: “Patel’s political allegiance and financial ties to President Trump, his lack of professional qualifications to lead the agency, his past statements threatening to ‘come after’ perceived opponents, and his associations with race-based extremists are disqualifying.”
The group documented what it called a rash of hate incidents following the 2016 election “as white supremacists celebrate Donald Trump’s victory.” It reported that, “In the ten days following the election, there were almost 900 reports of harassment and intimidation from across the nation. Many harassers invoked Trump’s name during assaults, making it clear that the outbreak of hate stemmed in large part from his electoral success.”
It criticized Trump’s “both sides” framing of the tragedy in Charlottesville, accusing the president of using his position “to send dog whistles and promote a revisionist history. This continues to embolden people with white nationalist views by justifying their inexcusable and violent actions.”
SPLC has filed multiple lawsuits in opposition to the Trump administration, including one accusing it of “violating due process rights of immigrant children and their sponsors.” It sued the Trump administration over the suspension of the Job Corps program, calling it “illegal.” And it sued Trump’s Department of Education, seeking to block its “unlawful rollback of civil rights protections for students experiencing discrimination in schools.”
Is there more to the story than we know?
Will this result in a successful prosecution—or provide yet another example of a rogue Justice Department attempting to intimidate the president’s enemies?
What do you think?
Excellent reporting, as always, Phil. Thanks so much for getting this out so quickly!
Truth be told, I’m a long-time supporter of the SPLC. But if an organization is using self-reflection to catch and make amends for crossing the line, it’s way ahead of the current administration’s use of lies, cover-ups, and self-enrichment, IMHO.