More on the Southern Poverty Law Center Allegedly Funding the American Nazi Party and Other Racists

I wrote in April about the initial Indictment in U.S. v. Southern Poverty Law Center (M.D. Ala.). As I wrote, the indictment opens,

The Southern Poverty Law Center’s (“SPLC”) stated mission included the dismantling of white supremacy and confronting hate across the country. However, unbeknownst to donors, some of their donated money was being used to fund the leaders and organizers of racist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation, and the National Alliance. The SPLC’s paid informants (“field sources”) engaged in the active promotion of racist groups at the same time that the SPLC was denouncing the same groups on its website….

[T]he SPLC explicitly sought donations under the auspices that donor money would be used to help “dismantle” violent extremist groups. In the SPLC’s solicitations for donations as outlined herein, donors 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, nor were donors ever told that some of the donated funds were used for the benefit of the violent extremist groups or that some of the donated funds would be used in the commission of state and federal crimes.

Tuesday’s Superseding Indictment offers some more detail about the allegations, among other things elaborating on the activities of one of the people working for it (labeled F-30, with “F” being the SPLC term for “field source”) and adding information about two others (F-31 and F-32):

F-30 led the National Socialist Party of America, was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, and was the leader of a faction of the Aryan Nations that had chapters in approximately 17 states.

In approximately 2010, out of money and seeking to get out of the white nationalist movement (“the movement”), F-30 reached out to the SPLC, unsolicited, and discussed a plan to leave the movement. Thereafter, the SPLC employee offered F-30 a monthly salary of approximately $2,500.00 in addition to payment of expenses to continue to lead and maintain the violent extremist organization F-30 told the SPLC employee he wanted to leave….

From approximately 2010 through 2016, the SPLC secretly moved over $70,000.00 in donors’ money from the SPLC operating account … onto F-30’s pay card…. F-30 used donors’ money to, among other things, travel to extremist rallies, host extremist rallies, donate money to leaders of other extremist organizations, recruit new members into his extremist organization, publish racist and extremist material for the purpose of recruiting new members, both inside and outside of prison, and create racist paraphernalia to sell at rallies to raise more money for his extremist organization. This was known to certain SPLC employees as they continued to secretly funnel donors’ money to F-30.

During the same period that SPLC was secretly using donors’ money to fund F-30’s extremist activities, the SPLC had an entire “Extremist File” webpage dedicated to F-30. The SPLC used this “Extremist File” webpage to solicit more public donations. At one point F-30 asked an SPLC employee to soften the language about him on his “Extremist File” webpage so that it would not scare off new members from joining his extremist organization. The SPLC employee agreed and changed the language on the SPLC’s “Extremist Files” webpage for F-30….

F-31 and F-32 were members of a Ku Klux Klan organization in their area. In or about 2010, F-31 and F-32 feared for their safety from other Klan members and wanted out of the movement. F-32 had seen media coverage about how the SPLC helped an individual leave an extremist organization and how the SPLC paid for this individual’s tattoo removals. This media coverage prompted F-32 to reach out to the SPLC, unsolicited, and ask the SPLC for help to get F-31 and F-32 out of the movement.

An SPLC employee invited F-31 and F-32 to Montgomery for a meeting. There, despite their requests for help getting out of the movement, an SPLC employee encouraged F-31 and F-32 to stay in the movement and offered to pay them a $1,200.00 monthly salary as well as to pay for expenses as incurred. Once they were financially backed by the SPLC to do so, F-31 and F-32 agreed to remain in the movement….

Using donors’ money, F-31 and F-32 attended extremist group rallies in multiple states. This led to F-31 rising from merely a group member to a leadership role within an extremist group. In the new leadership role, F-31 actively recruited new members using donors’ money.

F-32 also participated in recruiting new members using donors’ money. In addition, an SPLC employee knew that F-32 used donors’ money to purchase material to make Ku Klux Klan garments for others.

F-31 and F-32 were reimbursed by the SPLC with donor money for all expenses they incurred for cross-burning events to include the wood and fuel used….

As I noted in my original post,

I take it that one defense argument as to the donor fraud claims may be that they were trying to dismantle violent extremist groups, both by paying money to get information about them and by causing the groups to do and say things that would discredit them. That may itself be discreditable, but the question will be whether it’s a fraud on the donors.

And I followed up with expressing some tentative skepticism about the government’s theory. (The government is also accusing the SPLC of making false statements to banks about the accounts that were used to fund its activities; I didn’t focus much on that.) But in any event, the indictment and now the superseding indictment are factually noteworthy, whatever one thinks of the legal theory. Of course, note that they are just indictments, which is to say the government’s allegations; we’ll see what emerges at trial.