Acting U.S. Attorney Todd Blanche speaks at a press conference with FBI Director Kash Patel next to him at the Department of Justice in Washington, April 21, 2026.
Mandel Gunn | AFP | Getty Images
The Justice Department on Tuesday announced an 11-count bomb fraud indictment accusing the Southern Poverty Law Center of secretly funding leaders and organizers of white supremacist, racist and other hate groups that civil rights groups say they are fighting.
The indictment returned Tuesday by a grand jury in U.S. District Court in Montgomery, Alabama, alleges that “SPLC paid informants (‘field sources’) engaged in active promotion of racist groups at the same time that the SPLC was denouncing the same groups on its website.”
The SPLC, a nonprofit civil rights organization, is charged with six counts of wire fraud, four counts of bank fraud, and one count of money laundering.
Acting U.S. Attorney Todd Blanche said in a press conference that from 2014 to 2023, the SPLC paid at least $3 million to eight individuals, including those associated with the Ku Klux Klan, the United Klans of America, the National Socialist Party of America, the Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club of the United Aryan Nations, and the American Front.
“The SPLC did not dismantle the group,” said Blanche, flanked by FBI Director Kash Patel. “Rather, they were fabricating the extremism they claim to oppose by paying sources to incite racial hatred.”
“One troubling example is that the SPLC paid a member of a group of leaders who planned a Unite the Right protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, which resulted in the death of one person and the injury of dozens more,” the acting attorney general said, noting that the indictment alleges the group paid the individual approximately $270,000 over an eight-year period.
The SPLC said earlier Tuesday that the case is the subject of a criminal investigation by the Justice Department, which appears to focus on the group’s previous use of paid confidential informants “to gather reliable information about extremely violent groups.”
“We are outraged by the false allegations against the SPLC. For 55 years, the SPLC has stood as a beacon of hope, fighting white supremacy and all forms of injustice, and building a multiracial democracy in which we can all live and thrive,” Brian Fair, the group’s interim CEO, said in a statement following Blanche’s press conference.
“Combatting violent hate and extremist groups is one of the most dangerous jobs, and we believe it is also one of the most important jobs we do. Let me be clear: this program has saved lives,” Fair said.
“The SPLC will continue to vigorously protect ourselves, our staff, and our work, fight against hate, and continue to envision and create a safer and more just world,” he said.
In October, FBI Director Patel called the SPLC a “partisan smear machine” and said the FBI would sever ties with the organization.
Correction: This article has been corrected to reflect that one of the groups mentioned in the indictment is the American Front. In previous versions, the group name was misspelled.
