(AURN News) — The Trump Justice Department has indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center on charges of fraud, and legal observers say the case raises more questions about the government’s motives than about the organization.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced an 11-count indictment charging the 55-year-old civil rights nonprofit with wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering.
The government says the organization secretly paid informants inside the KKK, neo-Nazi organizations and white nationalist groups, and defrauded donors by not disclosing those payments in fundraising materials.
But what prosecutors are describing is a confidential informant program — the same tool federal law enforcement has used for decades to penetrate organized crime, drug cartels and domestic terror groups.
The FBI routinely pays sources inside extremist organizations. SPLC interim CEO Bryan Fair said the organization is outraged, that the program has saved lives and that SPLC will fight the charges.
Click play to listen to the report from AURN White House Correspondent Ebony McMorris. For more news, follow @E_N_McMorris & @aurnonline.
