Southern Poverty Law Center Pleads Not Guilty To Federal Fraud Charges and Questions Motives

A Montgomery-based civil rights group Thursday pleaded not guilty to federal charges of fraud and money-laundering and accused the U.S. Department of Justice of attacking it for political reasons.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Kelly F. Pate set a tentative trial date for the Southern Poverty Law Center for Oct. 5 after SPLC interim CEO and President Bryan Fair  entered the plea on the 11 counts, revolving around the SPLC’s use of paid informants in white supremacist and extremist groups.

“We are in the process of seeking justice in this case,” said Kevin Davidson, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama, in a news conference following the arraignment. “We finally have a trial date in the case, and we will see how things progress through the system.”

Attorneys for the SPLC said the organization has done nothing wrong and will contest the charges.

“They are based on inaccurate facts, and inapplicable law,” said Abbe Lowell, one of the defense attorneys who is representing SPLC, at a news conference. “As the filings in this case already have shown, and the administration’s actions have revealed, this prosecution continues the administration’s dangerous departure from principles the Department of Justice is required to uphold.”

Lowell said the SPLC will prevail in the case like it has in its history.

“The Southern Poverty Law Center will continue, as it has in the past, as a beacon of hope on the right side of history,” Lowell said.

Thursday’s arraignment came a few weeks after Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel, announced the indictment at a press conference.

The indictment stems from a clandestine program operated by the SPLC that began in the 1980s but has since discontinued. The program recruited individuals inside white supremacist and extremist groups to gain inside information on their activities and plans.

Some of that information was turned over to law enforcement to assist with the investigation and eventual prosecution of those groups. It was also used in reports and publications by the SPLC.

DOJ alleges that SPLC’s use of paid informants to disrupt extremist groups actually enriched those groups and amounted to fraud on donors. SPLC accused the DOJ of possibly making false statements to the grand jury that indicted the organization.

Legal experts have expressed doubts about the prosecution. Joyce Vance, a former U.S. attorney, defended the organization in a press briefing hosted by Democracy Defenders Fund on Wednesday.

“I am just envisioning the government trying to put on people who donated to the Southern Poverty Law Center and finding someone who will say that back in 2022 or 2023, which is when this program ended, that they would have been appalled that SPLC was expending their donor money to get an inside picture of what was going on in some of these hate-filled white supremacy groups,” she said. “I suspect that the contrary is true, and that SPLC, in its defense, would be able to muster a lot of donors who would say that they supported that work.”

The wire fraud charges, Davidson said at the arraignment, carry a 20-year federal prison sentence along with a $250,000 fine. Making a false statement to a federally insured bank is punishable by up to 30 years in federal prison along with a fine of $1 million. The money laundering charge carries a 20-year prison sentence and fine of $500,000.

The court hearing on Thursday is the first of a series of proceedings over the next several weeks that will include discovery.

Opposing sides are already working through a conflict between local and federal application to discovery, though the specific details were not given.

“It is something that I have never heard anybody bring up in my 14 years here,” Davidson said. “The judge mentioned there will be a briefing schedule on that, and I will look into it and file a response once they file a motion.”

Lowell also hinted at additional charges when he said he heard rumors of a superseding indictment, but he would not elaborate during the news conference, refusing to take questions after making his statement.

“We will just take the case where the evidence takes us,” Davidson said. “We are just going to let everything play out in the judicial system.”

–Ralph Chapoco, Alabama Reflector