The indictment includes six counts of wire fraud, because the SPLC claimed that it aims to "dismantle white supremacy" but it actually funded a broad swath of white nationalist groups.
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Beginning in the 1980s—the decade when SPLC's offices got firebombed—the SPLC cultivated a network of informants with violent extremist groups. It maintained those informants as recently as 2023, according to the indictment. SPLC funneled more than $3 million to them.
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Here's a list of informants. They include a person who was married to an "Exalted Cyclops of the Ku Klux Klan." Another one helped plan the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville in 2017.
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COUNTS 1-6: Wire Fraud
SPLC set up five "fictitious entities" to funnel cash to its informants.
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COUNTS 7-10: False Statements to Bank
In support of this scheme, SPLC employees made false statements to federally ensured banks.
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COUNT ELEVEN: Conspiracy to Conceal Money Laundering
The SPLC conspired to conceal its alleged money laundering.
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The indictment says the SPLC will forfeit any property coming from this allegedly illegal activity.
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Here's the SPLC's side of the story: SPLC notes that white supremacists attacked its offices in the past and claims that it funded informants in order to protect itself and others. But why maintain the program into the 2010s and 2020s?
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By the way, SPLC interim president Bryan Fair was kind enough to mention my congressional testimony on the SPLC and my exclusive reporting that Kash Patel had distanced the FBI from the SPLC.
The SPLC will have every opportunity to defend itself in court, but these charges are particularly damning. The SPLC claims it was only funding informants, not white nationalist groups, but DOJ makes a good case the SPLC was propping up the "hate" it claims to fight.
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As I noted in my book, Making Hate Pay, it always seemed suspicious that SPLC effectively promoted the Unite the Right rally, and then received millions after it happened.
After pressure from @IWPCapital & @ADFLegal, DoorDash has taken steps to allow employees to contribute to conservatives unfairly smeared as "hate groups."
ADF's Noah Nash told me that it "sets an excellent example for other companies to follow."
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How does it work? DoorDash uses a platform called Deed to help connect DoorDash employees to nonprofits. Deed, like the company Benevity, facilitates employee giving and volunteering—an important service. Unfortunately, Deed uses the SPLC to "screen" nonprofits.
The SPLC moved to dismiss the DOJ indictment for "vindictive prosecution," claiming that the Trump admin was targeting the leftist group for its free speech.
Here's why that doesn't work, according to the DOJ.
First, a motion to dismiss for vindictive prosecution often occurs when the government files a new indictment in an existing legal case. That's not the case here. "At bottom, this is a standard white collar fraud prosecution."
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The cases the SPLC cites in its own defense actually cut against its argument.
"The defendant does not even allege facts that would fit a recognized claim of vindictive prosecution."
How does corporate America blacklist conservatives? Companies don't do it outright. Instead, they outsource it: to the very same leftist "hate watchdog" that allegedly paid for KKK hoods and cross burnings😲
Meet Benevity. This software companies connects nearly 1K companies to 513K nonprofits, managing $16B in grants and 99M employee volunteer hours. It's the middleman between companies and the charities they voluntarily support.
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But Benevity also systematically excludes mainstream conservative and Christian nonprofits. Its former CO bragged about using the Southern Poverty Law Center's "hate list" to "vet" nonprofits.
Today, Society for the Rule of Law moved to file an amicus brief in U.S. v. SPLC, suggesting the DOJ engaged in vindictive prosecution. I can't help but wonder, what sort of conservative group takes the SPLC's side?
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The society claims it wants to protect prosecution from "political influence." The group says it "has not always concurred with" the SPLC's rhetoric, action, or tactics, but "opposes vindictive prosecution of any target."
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The society notes: @FBIDirectorKash condemned the SPLC as a "partisan smear machine" (it is), @Jim_Jordan asked the AG to examine the SPLC's influence under Biden, Pam Bondi was fired reportedly in part for not being aggressive enough, and Trump attacked SPLC.
Reminder: the SPLC raises money by claiming it exists to "dismantle white supremacy," but DOJ says the SPLC was actually propping up the hate it told donors it aimed to destroy. SPLC paid "field sources," whom SPLC says were merely informants.
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Yet the field sources used the SPLC's $ to:
1⃣Attend extremist rallies
2⃣Host rallies
3⃣Grow existing chapters
4⃣Create new chapters
5⃣Recruit individuals
6⃣Donate to extremist leaders
7⃣Purchase cross-burning material
8⃣Create racist paraphernalia
9⃣Pay living expenses
What if I told you an EPA lawyer who is also a union leader signed a document explicitly stating that she is "opposing this administration’s policies," but still seems to have kept her job?
On June 30, 2025, Cantello signed a "Declaration of Dissent," condemning the Trump "administration’s focus on harmful deregulation, mischaracterization of previous EPA actions, and disregard for scientific expertise."
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As a citizen, she has every right to take this stand. But as an executive branch employee, she needs to follow lawful orders from the president on down.
This mentality captures the essence of the deep state—opposition to the president's agenda from within the gov't.