A federal grand jury has indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center, a prominent civil rights organization known for its work researching and dismantling extremist groups, the Justice Department announced on Tuesday.
The 11-count indictment details an alleged multi-year effort by the SPLC to pay out at least $3 million to informants inside major extremist groups, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said at a press conference on Tuesday. The Justice Department alleges the SPLC deceived donors when collecting these funds and concealed the nature of the payments from banks and federal regulators using “sham” accounts and “fictitious companies.”
