The SPLC claims it was funding informants inside the extremist groups.

While the SPLC "purports to fight white supremacy and racial hatred,"

acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a press conference that "the SPLC was not dismantling these groups. It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose."

Blanche highlighted one example from the indictment, where the SPLC paid a member of the leadership group that planned the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.

"The Southern Poverty Law Center themselves advertise to raise money to dismantle violent extremist groups … however, the SPLC used the money they raised from their donor network to actually pay the leadership of these very groups," FBI Director Kash Patel explained at the press conference.

The indictment charges the SPLC with six counts of wire fraud, aiming to "obtain money via donations through materially false representations and omissions about what the donated funds would be used for." It charges the SPLC with four counts of false statements to a federally insured bank by creating accounts for fictitious entities to funnel the money. Finally, it charges the SPLC with one count of conspiracy to commit concealment of money laundering.

The Justice Department's indictment claims that the SPLC directed more than $1 million to an affiliate of the National Alliance; more than $300,000 to an affiliate of the Aryan Nations; more than $270,000 to a member of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017; more than $140,000 to the former chairman of the National Alliance; more than $73,000 to former Ku Klux Klan members; and more than $19,000 to the president of American Front.

Blanche said the federal investigation began years ago, and the Biden administration shut it down. The Daily Signal previously reported that members of the Biden administration worked closely with the SPLC.

Patel said the FBI's "investigation revealed that funds were used to facilitate the commission of further state and federal offenses, totaling over $3 million."

He said the SPLC allegedly engaged in a "widespread, decade-long multimillion-dollar fraud" and proceeded to "hide their criminal activity from our financial banking network."

A reporter noted that the FBI had previously worked with the SPLC, and asked whether the SPLC revealed to law enforcement that it was funding these entities.

Patel said he did not find it surprising that the SPLC "never told anybody that they were paying off the Ku Klux Klan."

Bryan Fair, interim president and CEO of the SPLC, revealed the federal investigation Tuesday morning, and admitted that the SPLC had paid informants in white nationalist groups.

Fair added that the use of paid informants was "necessary" because of threats the SPLC faced.

Fair noted that in 1983, members of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan firebombed the SPLC's offices, and he claimed staff have faced "countless credible threats" since.

"For decades, we engaged in unprecedented litigation to dismantle the Klan and other hate groups," he said.

"In light of that work, we sought to protect the safety of our staff and the public. We frequently shared what we learned from informants with local and federal law enforcement, including the FBI. We did not, however, share our use of informants broadly with anyone, to protect the identity and safety of the informants and their families."

The SPLC built its reputation by suing Ku Klux Klan groups into bankruptcy. Now, the group publishes a "hate map" including mainstream conservative and Christian groups alongside Klan chapters.

The SPLC did not immediately respond to The Daily Signal's request for comment. Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

Tyler O'Neil is senior editor at The Daily Signal and the author of two books: "Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center," and "The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government."

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