Officials with Lambda Legal are condemning the U.S. Department of Justice’s move on Tuesday, April 21, to indict the Southern Poverty Law Center on fraud charges, calling the indictment “the opening salvo in the broad onslaught yet to come” against civil rights organizations in general.
NPR reports that SPLC was indicted Tuesday, April 21, on federal fraud charges “alleging it improperly raised millions of dollars to secretly pay leaders of the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups for inside information,” according to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
SPLC is charged with wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The case was brought in federal court in Alabama, where SPLC is based.
The Justice Department alleges the SPLC “defrauded donors by using their money to fund the very extremism it claimed to be fighting, with more than $3 million paid to informants through a now-defunct program to infiltrate white supremacist and other extremist groups.”
Prosecutors claim extremist groups used some of that money to “carry out other crimes,” but did not specify what crimes those were, NPR said.
Lambda Legal CEO Kevin Jennings issued a statement today (Wednesday, April 22) describing SPLC as “one of the country’s oldest and most effective civil rights organizations” and called the Trump administration’s charges against the organization “unjustified and unprecedented harassment and intimidation.”
“Make no mistake, however,” Jennings added. “This is not an isolated attack on one civil rights organization; rather, it is the opening salvo in the broad onslaught yet to come. But we will not be cowed.
“The Trump administration has made no secret of its desire to rewrite history, to embrace hate organizations and to elevate those who promote violence and racism. We at Lambda Legal know this all too well as we are engaged in a furious struggle to beat back the administration’s nonstop, vicious efforts to erase the LGBTQ+ community. We fought the first Trump administration, and we won. And we are fighting — and winning — against Trump 2.0.”
Jennings applauded SPLC for having been “uniquely effective in its fight for civil rights and against hate, racism, and violence over the past 55 years,” which is “obviously why it has been targeted.” And, Jennings added, “recognizing this administration’s cruel agenda is why Lambda Legal, SPLC, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and dozens of other civil rights organizations one year ago joined together in a Unity Pact and pledged to stand united against this administration’s arbitrary and unjustified attacks.”
Jennings ended his statement by calling on Congress to “act decisively to protect this movement that has done so much to bring us closer to realizing this country’s pledge of ‘liberty and justice for all.’”
SPLC has vowed to “vigorously defend ourselves, our staff and our work” against these “false allegations,” noting that the informant program has “saved lives.
SPLC Bryan Fair, noting that “Taking on violent hate and extremist groups is among the most dangerous work” and also “among the most important work” the organization does. “The actions by the DOJ will not shake our resolve to fight for justice and ensure the promise of the Civil Rights Movement becomes a reality for all,” he pledged.
— Tammye Nash