“The SPLC was not dismantling these groups, it was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.”
The Department of Justice has announced charges against the Southern Poverty Law Center for six counts of wire fraud, four counts of bank fraud, and one count of money laundering. The group was also found to be funding white supremacist groups to stoke racial hatred.
"According to the charges in the indictment," said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, "the SPLC is a nonprofit 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, as the indictment describes, the SPLC was not dismantling these groups, it was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred."
https://twitter.com/TPostMillennial/status/2046709546517774525?s=20
"The indictment describes his conduct in detail, but one troubling example is that the SPLC was paying a member of the leadership group that planned that unite the right protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, that resulted in the death of one person, and injured dozens more," Blanche added.
https://twitter.com/TheJusticeDept/status/2046704517119377577?s=20
Blanche said that this person got a total of $275,000 over the course of eight years. Blanche also added that the SPLC paid out $3 million to people between the years of 2014 and 2023 to at least eight people that were affiliated with various hate groups like the KKK and other neo-Nazi groups.
Earlier on Tuesday, the SPLC said that it was under investigation by the DOJ. “Although we don’t know all the details, the focus appears to be on the SPLC’s prior use of paid confidential informants to gather credible intelligence on extremely violent groups,” the organization said in a statement.
The case will be going to Judge Emily Marks, who is a 2018 appointment from President Donald Trump's first term.
https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/2046712355497669036?s=20
The indictment for the charges against the SPLC were returned on Tuesday from a grand jury in the US District Court in the Middle District of Alabama. When asked by reporters if the SPLC ever told law enforcement they were paying off the people linked to the KKK and other neo-Nazi groups, Blanche said, "It is my understanding that SPLC never told anybody in law enforcement they were paying off the Ku Klux Klan, and I don't think that should surprise anybody."
https://twitter.com/TPostMillennial/status/2046716099752828938?s=20
The indictment alleged that "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."
https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/2046725167821287657?s=20
The individual who was part of the leadership for the "Unite the Right" rally in 2017 "was a member of the online leadership chat group that planned" the rally and "and attended the event at the direction of the SPLC." This individual also "made racist postings under the supervision of the SPLC and helped coordinate transportation to the event for several attendees."
One section of the indictment also alleged that one of the "field sources"—known as F-unknown in the document—"was the Imperial Wizard of the United Klans of America." Another source was "an officer in the National Socialist Movement and the Aryan Nations affiliated Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club," the indictment said. the SPLC had paid this person over $300,000 between 2014 and 2020.
Additionally, the SPLC had paid the "the reported National President of American Front" who was also a "convicted federal felon for his participation in a cross burning. Between 2016 and 2019, the SPLC secretly paid [the 'field source'] more than $19,000.00."
The SPLC as an organization has been routinely slammed over classifying some organizations as "hate groups" on its so-called "hate map."
One of the groups it added in 2024 to the "hate map" was the late Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA. One day before Kirk was assassinated, the SPLC had featured Kirk on their "Hatewatch" newsletter.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1973873845384991115?s=20
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