New allegations surrounding the Southern Poverty Law Center are raising serious questions about the relationship between the Biden administration’s Justice Department, the FBI, and one of the country’s most politically connected left-wing activist groups.
According to a federal indictment, the SPLC allegedly funneled millions of dollars in donor money into a covert network of paid informants operating inside violent extremist organizations, including the KKK. Prosecutors say the organization concealed how donor funds were being used while publicly condemning the very same groups on its website.
And now, former Obama administration official Norm Eisen appears to be defending the operation by arguing that the Biden DOJ and FBI were aware of it all along.
Because apparently in Washington, if the federal government knows about something questionable, that magically makes it fine. Funny how that logic never seems to apply to conservatives.
The SPLC was indicted last month by a federal grand jury on charges including wire fraud and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. According to the DOJ, the organization allegedly misled donors by failing to disclose that donated money was being secretly used to pay leaders and organizers connected to racist extremist groups.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche accused the SPLC of “manufacturing racism to justify its existence.”
During a virtual press conference hosted by Democracy Defenders Fund, former Biden Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta acknowledged that the SPLC’s informant program regularly shared intelligence with federal law enforcement agencies.
Gupta claimed prosecutors and federal agencies benefited from the information collected through the operation and defended the organization’s work as helping protect communities from violence and racially motivated extremism.
That explanation immediately raised eyebrows considering the indictment alleges the SPLC was simultaneously funding individuals tied to the very extremist groups it publicly denounced.
Eisen then argued that the release of grand jury transcripts could show jurors were not fully informed that the DOJ and FBI allegedly knew informants were being utilized and paid by the SPLC.
“The claim that SPLC committed financial crimes… does not hold water,” Eisen said, arguing that the use of paid informants is common practice in law enforcement.
But critics point out the central issue isn’t simply the use of informants — it’s whether donors were intentionally deceived and whether money was covertly routed through fake entities to conceal the transactions.
