The Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation into the Southern Poverty Law Center, one of the nation's largest civil rights organizations, focusing on the group's historical use of paid informants to penetrate extremist networks.
Bryan Fair, the SPLC's CEO, disclosed the investigation Tuesday without providing extensive detail. He said the inquiry, being handled by the U.S. attorney's office for the Middle District of Alabama where the group is based in Montgomery, appears centered on "the SPLC's prior use of paid confidential informants to gather credible intelligence on extremely violent groups."
The SPLC has discontinued the practice, Fair said. The organization deployed informants as part of decades-long litigation campaigns against the Ku Klux Klan and other hate organizations. Fair described the tactic as a necessary security measure given the group's history of violent attacks.
"In 1983, our offices were firebombed, and in the years since, there have been countless credible threats against our staff," Fair said in a statement. "For decades, we engaged in unprecedented litigation to dismantle the Klan and other hate groups. In light of that work, we sought to protect the safety of our staff and the public."
The Justice Department and the U.S. attorney's office declined to comment. Neither agency confirmed the investigation's scope or timeline.
The probe arrives as the Trump administration has signaled plans to scrutinize nonprofit organizations that oppose its agenda. Conservative groups have long objected to SPLC's designation of certain right-leaning organizations as hate groups, a practice that drew criticism from the FBI itself last year when the bureau announced it was severing its partnership with the center over what it called defamation of right-leaning groups.
Fair characterized the investigation as part of a broader effort to weaken civil rights enforcement. "Today, the federal government has been weaponized to dismantle the rights of our nation's most vulnerable people and any organization like ours that stands in the breach," he said, pledging to defend the organization and continue its work against hate movements.
Author James Rodriguez: "Using informants to monitor extremists raises legitimate questions, but the timing and political backdrop here matter as much as the facts do."
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