After the SPLC group was hit with an 11-count federal indictment last week, all involving allegations of bank fraud, SPLC attorneys filed court documents Monday refuting the allegation the Alabama-based group was paying leaders in the same white supremacist hate groups it was monitoring on its “Hate Map.”
“The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence,” Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, said last week.
Blanche and the DOJ allege the SPLC violated bank fraud laws by creating fake companies in which $3 million in payments passed through to pay top leaders in eight white supremacist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan.
In a statement, the SPLC announced it filed two motions in federal court challenging Blanche’s allegation it engaged in a clever deception. Instead, the group claims, it has a record of passing along information to law enforcement authorities, such as a 2019 tip that stopped a neo-Nazi from attacking targets in Las Vegas.
The statement from SPLC also claims its attorneys, aware of the pending federal indictment, even shared information and documents with federal prosectors to show their informant program was legitimate.
Asked about the SPLC’s legal claims, author and news editor Tyler O’Neil told “Washington Watch” he believes the group is attempting “damage control” by bragging about its long-running informant program.
O’Neil, editor of The Daily Signal, warned the public about SPLC corruption in a 2020 book, “Making Hate Pay.” Even his book, which documented offshore accounts and sexual harassment allegations, did not conclude white supremacists were on the SPLC payroll.
The SPLC attorneys, he told show host Jody Hice, are now trying to get ahead of the criminal charges with their version of the informant program and its intention.
“It shows not only were they paying people in the Klan, and people who organized Charlottesville for instance, but they also were sometimes directing the racist postings,” O’Neil, citing the indictment, pointed out.
In some cases, O’Neil continued, the same white supremacist leaders on the SPLC payroll are also listed on the SPLC website under its “extremist” files.
Citing the federal indictment, O’Neil called its allegations “explosive” and said it’s describing something other than a traditional informant process.
“And, by the way, I also think we need to take a step back here and say the Southern Poverty Law Center is not a law enforcement entity. This is not the same thing as when the FBI has informants,” O’Neil stressed.
