The Southern Poverty Law Center says federal law enforcement knew all along that it was running confidential informants to expose right-wing extremists, directly challenging the Trump administration's justification for last week's indictment.
In court papers filed Tuesday, SPLC attorneys argued that the Justice Department was "well aware" the organization used paid sources to gather intelligence on violent extremist groups and that this intelligence "put violent extremists in jail." The filing attacks the core claim made by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who declared after the indictment that the SPLC was "manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred."
A federal grand jury in Alabama returned 11 counts against the 55-year-old civil rights group last week, charging it with wire fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering stemming from its use of confidential informants. But SPLC lawyers contend the prosecution is "unprecedented" and "irregular," essentially criminalizing the same intelligence-gathering methods the organization has deployed for decades while sharing findings directly with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.
In a pointed filing, the SPLC's legal team suggested the Alabama grand jury was not simply misled by prosecutors but may have been "actively weaponized" to push the case forward. They demanded disclosure of grand jury proceedings and asked the court to sanction what they called false and prejudicial public statements from Trump administration officials.
The SPLC's lawyers also took direct aim at Blanche's recent appearance on Fox News, where he stated there was "no information that we have" suggesting the organization had shared informant intelligence with law enforcement. In a letter to the acting U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Alabama, Kevin Davidson, SPLC attorneys demanded the government "correct" the statement and provided specific examples of how they alerted law enforcement to illegal conduct by extremist group members who were subsequently prosecuted federally.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Kelly Fitzgerald Pate ordered the Justice Department to respond to the SPLC's motions by May 5.
The filing frames the prosecution as a stark departure from Justice Department norms, with attorneys warning that grand jury secrecy "cannot be used as a shield for a prosecution that is so clearly untethered from the facts, the law, and the historic relationship between this organization and the very law enforcement agencies now seeking its destruction." They alleged "repeated, false, and prejudicial remarks" from senior Trump administration officials reveal the case's politicization and create a "manifest risk of prosecutorial misconduct."
President Trump has repeatedly attacked the SPLC in recent days, calling it one of the "greatest political scams in American History" and linking the prosecution to his baseless claims about the 2020 election. The indictment comes after Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi in early April over frustrations that she had not secured enough indictments against his perceived enemies. Blanche told NBC News this month that Americans should be "happy" about Trump's deep involvement in Justice Department operations.
The SPLC's civil rights work has long made it a target of conservative criticism. The organization built its reputation suing white supremacist groups, a mission its lawyers now argue is under direct assault through a prosecution they characterize as weaponized retaliation.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "When a sitting administration starts indicting organizations for doing the exact work federal cops say was helpful, you're watching something closer to a purge than justice."
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