DOJ Charges Southern Poverty Law Center With Fraud, Money Laundering

Oh, and then there’s the whole part about funding extremist groups to create raaaaacism and hate

DOJ Charges Far-Left SPLC with Fraud, Money Laundering, ‘Manufacturing Racism to Justify Its Existence’

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) was charged with fraud and money laundering involving “violent extremist groups.”

In a press release from the Office of Public Affairs for the DOJ it was revealed that the SPLC was charged by an Alabama grand jury “with 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.”

According to the press release, an indictment says that “starting in the 1980s, the SPLC began operating a covert network of individuals who were either associated with violent and extremist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan”:

According to the indictment starting in the 1980s, the SPLC began operating a covert network of individuals who were either associated with violent and extremist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, or who had infiltrated violent extremist groups at the SPLC’s direction. Unbeknownst to donors, some of their donated money was being used to fund the leaders and organizers of racist groups at the same time that the SPLC was denouncing the same groups on its website.

The SPLC also allegedly “funneled more than $3 million donated funds to individuals who were associated” with groups such as the National Socialist Movement, United Klans of America, and the Aryan Nations affiliated Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club, between 2014 and 2023, according to the press release.

Oh, and how about this

I wonder how many who fomented on January 6th were funded by the SPLC? Let’s check this utterly unbiased BBC article

The SPLC has long had a sour relationship with the Trump administration. In October, the FBI ended its relationship with the group after accusing it of being a “partisan smear machine”.

Some Republicans have also accused the group of unfairly targeting conservative groups such as Turning Point USA, the Family Research Council and Moms for Liberty, as well as individuals aligned with the Trump administration.

We got that high in the article before we got the real details like

It states that the SPLC sent more than $270,000 to a person who helped to plan, and attended, the deadly white nationalist Unite the Right event in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. It does not specify why that person was paid or what type of work they did for the organisation.

It’s an old media trick: bury the details in the article where people will have already moved on. The BBC, like many other news outlets, are making this look like a hit job before discussing the reality.

In a news conference, Blanche said: “The SPLC is a non-profit entity that purports to fight white supremacy and racial hatred by reporting on extremist groups and conducting research to inform law enforcement groups with the goal of dismantling these groups.”

“The SPLC was not dismantling these groups. It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.”

How many made it to that quote, with the 3 paragraphs/30 second rule? The AP finally gets around to the heart of the matter deep in their article

The indictment says the center told donors the money would be used to help dismantle violent extremist groups, but did not disclose that some of the funds would actually be used to pay members of those groups. Some legal experts say it’s an unusual legal approach.

“That’s a new way of going after a charity — I’m somewhat surprised,” said Phil Hackney, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh. Typically, when a nonprofit group is charged with fraud, it’s because someone is accused of pilfering donated funds to line their own pockets, Hackney said.

But in this case, the government is targeting the method and intent in which a nonprofit used its money, he said.

This should be fun, as more and more information comes to light.