The U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday that a federal grand jury in Montgomery, Alabama, has returned an 11-count indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center, a prominent civil rights nonprofit based in Alabama. The charges include six counts of wire fraud, four counts of making false statements to a federally insured bank, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. The indictment alleges the organization secretly funneled more than $3 million to paid informants affiliated with white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups — including the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nations, the National Socialist Movement and the American Front — between 2014 and 2023.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, flanked by FBI Director Kash Patel at a press conference, said the SPLC used shell companies and fictitious entities to conceal the payments while simultaneously soliciting donations by claiming to dismantle extremist groups. "The SPLC was not dismantling these groups," Blanche said. "It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred." Among the specific allegations, Blanche said the SPLC paid approximately $270,000 over eight years to a member of the leadership group that organized the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which resulted in one death and dozens of injuries.

SPLC interim Chief Executive Bryan Fair denied the allegations and said the organization's use of paid confidential informants was a standard and necessary practice to gather intelligence on violent extremist groups. "We are outraged by the false allegations levied against SPLC," Fair said in a statement. "Taking on violent hate and extremist groups is among the most dangerous work there is, and we believe it is also among the most important work we do. To be clear, this program saved lives." Earlier in the day, before the indictment was announced, Fair said in a video that the SPLC's informants had risked their lives to infiltrate and report on the nation's most dangerous extremist groups and had provided information to the FBI.

The indictment represents a significant escalation in the Trump administration's legal and political campaign against left-leaning organizations. Blanche said the investigation had been underway for an extended period but was halted during the Biden administration before being revived under President Trump's second term. FBI Director Patel severed the FBI's working relationship with the SPLC in October, calling it a "partisan smear machine." The SPLC, founded in the early 1970s to defend the legal rights of Black Americans, has long drawn criticism from conservative figures for its practice of labeling far-right entities as hate groups.

The case will proceed in federal court in the Middle District of Alabama. The SPLC said it intends to vigorously defend itself against the charges. Legal and civil liberties advocates are expected to scrutinize the prosecution closely, given the broader pattern of the Trump administration using federal law enforcement against organizations that have been critical of its policies or officials.