WASHINGTON (AP) — The criminal indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center this week was met with much outrage but little surprise from civil rights leaders, who have prepared for more than a year for tough legal scrutiny from the Trump administration, and how to mount a coordinated response.
In a round of calls immediately after the indictment, attorneys discussed how to support the SPLC, a civil rights group founded in 1971 in Montgomery, Alabama that has tracked white supremacist groups and been outspoken on voting rights, immigration and policing. In a call, organizers agreed that winning in the court of public opinion will be important as the legal proceedings begin, leading to dozens of public statements of support and planned rallies.
And legal advisers from civil rights groups urged organizers to prepare for similar criminal charges, lengthy legal proceedings that could lead to audits of their resources and their staff and internal documents.
The rush of behind-the-scenes coordination represented a marked mobilization by activist groups that, like many universities, law firms and nonprofits, have been at odds with the federal government since President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year.
“There’s a muscle building among these organizations that learned from the law firm debacle,” said Vanita Gupta, a former associate attorney general at the Justice Department during the Biden administration, referring to the deals some major law firms made with the administration. Gupta led a call to activists.
“The government’s goal is often to shut down and paralyze the organization, so that they have to stop working while they defend themselves. And here’s hoping that with this massive effort to save the SPLC, that won’t happen,” Gupta said.
Organizers say they are ready to support the SPLC in its legal battle.
“Whitewashing the foot soldiers of Great Replacement Theory and other extremists is a clear assault on civil rights and civil liberties. This coalition will not be silent,” said Maya Wiley, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, an umbrella organization of hundreds of civil rights groups.
Without addressing the indictment, a coalition of more than 100 activist groups published a letter Tuesday expressing solidarity with groups “unfairly targeted” by the federal government. The SPLC was a signatory to the agreement.
“An attack on one is an attack on all,” the coalition declared. “We will share knowledge, resources and support with any organization threatened by abuse of power.”
The DOJ alleges criminal conduct in the SPLC’s longstanding whistleblower network
The Justice Department alleges that the SPLC, best known for its work prosecuting and tracking hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, violated federal law through its network of paid informants on extremist groups. The DOJ claims the payments funded hate groups and defrauded the SPLC’s donors.
The SPLC now faces charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering in a lawsuit brought in federal court in Alabama, where the organization is based.
“The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said at a news conference announcing the charges. Blanche promised the department would “hold accountable the SPLC and every other fraudulent organization that operates with the same deceptive playbook.”
Civil rights activists have long seen the claims as a disingenuous and partisan move that could empower extremist groups.
National Urban League President Mark Morial said, “The indictment is plain political and represents the Justice Department turning on itself.” “It puts the Justice Department, in effect, in a position to defend white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan and others.”
Advocates also see the indictment as part of the administration’s broader overhaul of civil rights laws and the Justice Department’s prosecution of Trump’s political opponents.
In recent years the SPLC has become a bogeyman among conservatives who resent the designation of many right-wing organizations involved in Republican politics as hateful or extremist.
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, which the SPLC has designated as a hate group, said the government should compensate not only the perpetrators, but also those harmed by the SPLC.
“For years, the SPLC has used its platform to label and target organizations with which it disagrees, often blurring the line between legitimate concerns and ideological attack,” Perkins said in a statement. “This type of reckless characterization not only harms reputations, it puts lives at risk.”
In October, FBI Director Kash Patel canceled the agency’s longtime anti-extremism partnerships with the SPLC and the Anti-Defamation League, which fights anti-Semitism. Patel called the SPLC a “partisan smear machine” at the time.
The Justice Department and the SPLC did not respond to requests for comment.
The indictment represents a marked change for civil rights action
Advocates dispute the DOJ’s characterization of the SPLC’s work.
“The problem is that the indictment essentially claims that it was fraud to SPLC donors to use their funds to fight the Klan, neo-Nazis and other white supremacist groups, when people gave to the organization,” said Norm Eisen, founder of Democracy Defenders Action, a group working on legal disputes with the Trump administration.
Eisen added: “Not only does the SPLC believe that there is something wrong with using informants to stop white supremacist violence and protecting their identities, but it is also the stock and trade of the FBI.”
Civil rights organizations are now preparing for more legal action. Organizations have reviewed their document retention, tax compliance and audit policies over the past year to protect against any investigations or lawsuits.
Some civil rights organizations have also created new organizational structures that can better withstand legal scrutiny. In another recent call, activists laid out new financial conduits for donors to potentially restructure some groups into for-profit entities, or ensure employees can receive salaries if the organization’s assets are seized or frozen.
The preparations represent a significant shift for many civil rights leaders, who have counted the Justice Department as a reliable ally in major civil rights battles under both Democratic and Republican administrations in recent years.
“What we’re seeing in real time is the administration trying to take advantage of its position to target people and organizations that don’t agree with its political views,” said NAACP President Derrick Johnson, who called the Justice Department “weaponized by dangerous forces.”
But for other leaders, the SPLC indictment raises the prospect of a return to an earlier era, when the Justice Department monitored civil rights leaders to disrupt their activities.
“We’re not backing down, but we’re in the clear. If you’re in the crosshairs of this administration, everybody can be at risk in some way,” said Juan Proano, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, a civil rights group suing the Trump administration over executive orders addressing birthright citizenship and mail-in voting.
“They’re looking for it; they want it to have a chilling effect,” Proano said.
