This week, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) was indicted by a federal grand jury on multiple counts of fraud and money laundering. The organization is notorious for its “hate maps,” which list organizations in all 50 states that promulgate “hate” and “extremism” according to SPLC’s skewed definitions. The irony is that after decades of calling out “hate groups” like Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council, the grand jury found that between 2014 and 2023, SPLC covertly funneled over $3 million in donated funds to violent extremist groups like the KKK… In other words, they were “manufacturing extremism” for their own benefit.

SPLC has a long history of aggressively targeting family policy councils and conservative organizations for “hateful” views on topics like abortion, transgenderism, immigration, free speech, and more. In 2018, SPLC wrote a hit piece against us because of our “anti-Muslim” and “anti-LGBT” views. As of this week, SPLC still lists the following organizations on its “hate map”: 

• Family Research Council (FRC)
• Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)
• American College of Pediatricians
• American Family Association (AFA)
• California Family Council
• Center for Christian Virtue
• Center for Immigration Studies (CIS)
• Family Foundation of Virginia
• Family Research Institute
• Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)
• Focus on the Family
• Liberty Counsel
• The Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine
• And more 

Those conservative Christian organizations are listed alongside actual extremist organizations such as the National Socialist German Workers Party, the National Socialist Movement, various chapters of the KKK, and more.

It was just a matter of time before SPLC was held accountable for its reckless misrepresentation of respected organizations and promulgation of hate – the very concept they purported to fight against.

“The SPLC allegedly engaged in a massive fraud operation to deceive their donors, enrich themselves, and hide their deceptive operations from the public,” FBI Director Kash Patel stated. “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. That is illegal – and this is an ongoing investigation against all individuals involved.”

An indictment is a written statement from a grand jury formally charging a person or entity with a crime after a proceeding to determine “if there is adequate basis for bringing criminal charges against a suspected criminal actor.” An indictment is not a conviction – it is an indication that enough serious evidence of wrongdoing exists to warrant a criminal trial. The statement from the grand jury explains their findings:

The Southern Poverty Law Center’s (“SPLC”) stated mission included the dismantling of white supremacy and confronting hate across the country. However, unbeknownst to donors, some of their donated money was being used to fund the leaders and organizers of racist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation, and the National Alliance. The SPLC’s paid informants (“field sources”) engaged in the active promotion of racist groups at the same time that the SPLC was denouncing the same groups on its website. The SPLC also had a field source who was a member of the online leadership chat group that planned the 2017 “Unite the Right” event in Charlottesville, Virginia. That field source made racist postings under the supervision of the SPLC and helped coordinate transportation to the event for several attendees. In order to covertly pay its field sources, the SPLC opened bank accounts connected to a series of fictitious entities. The covert nature of the accounts allowed the SPLC to disguise the true nature, source, ownership, and control of the fraudulently obtained donated money the SPLC paid the field sources. In order to keep the scheme going, the SPLC made a series of false statements related to the operation of the accounts.

FRC President Tony Perkins said the indictment “is a welcome development, especially if it marks the beginning of the end” of the SPLC’s “long pattern of misrepresentation and harm.”

“For years, the SPLC has used its platform to label and target organizations with whom it disagrees, often blurring the line between legitimate concern and ideological attack,” Perkins wrote in a statement, “That kind of reckless characterization doesn’t just damage reputations, it has put lives at risk.”

We’re glad a pathway to justice has been opened by this indictment. We will keep you updated as the case progresses.