Trump administration’s indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center breaks with norms – and may lack evidence of criminal wrongdoing

FBI Director Kash Patel, right, and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche speak about the Southern Poverty Law Center's indictment in April 2026. Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images

The Southern Poverty Law Center was indicted on April 21, 2026, on federal fraud charges. The Justice Department alleges that the civil rights group known as the SPLC improperly raised millions of dollars to secretly pay leaders of the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist and extremist groups for inside information.

The Justice Department alleges that the SPLC, based in Montgomery, Alabama, and founded in 1971, defrauded its donors by making “materially false representations and omissions about what the donated funds would be used for.”