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The Southern Poverty Law Center could be headed for financial ruin if convicted on charges that it provided millions in donations to members of extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan, the Justice Department told The Daily Wire on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
It remains unclear if any individuals will be indicted as part of the years-long investigation. The DOJ maintains the investigation into the SPLC is ongoing after the federal grand jury indictment in the Middle District of Alabama on Tuesday. Specifically, the indictment argues that \u201cdonors were not told that some of the donated funds were to be used by the SPLC to pay high-level leaders of violent extremist groups and others.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond just legal consequences, Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Jeremy Tedesco explained that corporations that work with SPLC might also cut ties with the organization.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all propaganda designed to harm their enemies for political reasons. But with this indictment, I would think, we\u2019ll probably see another wave of companies. Maybe the final ones that rely on them say, \u2018It\u2019s probably enough,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Salesforce notably stopped using SPLC\u2019s \u201cmetrics,\u201d which could have potentially driven business strategies. The Heritage Foundation<\/a> celebrated the decision at the time.<\/p>\n The left-wing group has always claimed to target legitimate hate groups, but has been facing pushback for its blanket labeling of conservative organizations as hateful\u2014 and per the Justice Department\u2019s indictment, is facing multiple charges for wire fraud, giving false information to a bank, and \u201cconspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.\u201d<\/p>\n Tedesco explained that the trial will need to determine whether or not the SPLC was \u201cactually funding the activities and the leaders and members of these organizations, essentially to subsidize what they were doing so they could go back to their donors and ask them for money.\u201d<\/p>\n The indictment explains that the group\u2019s \u201cpaid informants (\u2018field sources\u2019) engaged in the active promotion of racist groups at the same time that the SPLC was denouncing the same groups on its website\u201d and misled their donors in the process.<\/p>\n The grand jury charged that the SPLC \u201copened bank accounts connected to a series of fictitious entities\u201d and lied about the accounts to \u201ckeep the scheme going.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe SPLC also had a field source who was a member of the online leadership chat group that planned the 2017 \u2018Unite the Right\u2019 event in Charlottesville, Virginia,\u201d the indictment stated. \u201cThat field source made racist postings under the supervision of the SPLC and helped coordinate transportation to the event for several attendees.\u201d<\/p>\n The SPLC did not respond to The Daily Wire\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n \u201cAlthough we don\u2019t know all the details, the focus appears to be on the SPLC\u2019s prior use of paid confidential informants to gather credible intelligence on extremely violent groups,\u201d SPLC interim president and CEO Bryan Fair said on Tuesday prior to the indictment announcement, according to Fox News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n