{"id":1493,"date":"2026-05-27T18:35:45","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T18:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=1493"},"modified":"2026-05-27T18:35:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T18:35:45","slug":"southern-poverty-law-center-seeks-dismissal-of-vindictive-justice-department-indictment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=1493","title":{"rendered":"Southern Poverty Law Center seeks dismissal of \u2018vindictive\u2019 Justice Department indictment"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

WASHINGTON<\/strong> | A Justice Department indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center is part of a \u201ctop-down\u201d campaign of retribution against President Donald Trump\u2019s perceived political enemies and constitutes a vindictive prosecution that must be dismissed, lawyers for the nonprofit argued Tuesday in urging a judge to toss the case out.<\/p>\n

The Alabama-based nonprofit was indicted in April on fraud and money laundering charges that accuse it of misleading donors by paying informants inside white supremacist and other extremist organizations to obtain inside information about their activities.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for the SPLC have already argued that law enforcement agencies have long known that the nonprofit paid informants to report on the movements of hate groups. They have also said acting Attorney General Todd Blanche made a false statement at a news conference when he said the organization had not shared with law enforcement information it had learned from informants. Blanche later appeared to walk back that claim in a television interview, saying it was true that the SPLC had \u201cselectively\u201d shared information with law enforcement over the years.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The attorneys for the center expanded on those arguments Tuesday, saying in a legal brief seeking to dismiss the case that the prosecution was the \u201cculmination of a top-down, retributive campaign\u201d in which Trump pushed the Justice Department \u201cto go after those individuals and groups he deemed his political enemies, including the SPLC.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defense says indictment fits broader retaliation campaign<\/strong><\/p>\n

The brief was filed against the backdrop of other politically charged prosecutions that have raised concerns that the Justice Department is operating as a weapon to target Trump\u2019s opponents. It drew a parallel between the SPLC indictment and the human smuggling prosecution of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, which was dismissed Friday on similar vindictive prosecution grounds by a judge who called the case an \u201cabuse of prosecuting power.\u201d<\/p>\n

The SPLC has said its now-defunct program of paying informants to infiltrate hate groups was developed to glean key insights into their activities so that potential victims could be protected. An earlier federal investigation into the practice was closed without charges, but the brief paints the current Justice Department as pursuing the case with renewed \u2014 and rushed \u2014 vigor.<\/p>\n

The department decided to pursue the indictment without having interviewed any current SPLC employees, and did not seek any documents from the group until after it had told defense lawyers that criminal charges were forthcoming, defense lawyers say.<\/p>\n

During a meeting requested by defense lawyers who hoped to avert to indictment, Justice Department officials informed them that the decision had already been made to pursue charges, according to the brief.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese procedural irregularities show that the charges against the SPLC were a foregone conclusion based on prosecutorial vindictiveness \u2014 driven by the White House and FBI leadership\u2019s retribution campaign \u2014 rather than the result of a good faith examination of the evidence,\u201d the document states. It says the indictment was \u201cpremised on conclusory accusations but devoid of provable facts or a proper statement of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

The motion also cites whistleblower accounts that accused top Justice Department officials of rushing forward with an indictment despite internal concerns about the merits of the case and the strength of the evidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor weeks, we have been arguing against these false allegations levied against the SPLC \u2014 an organization that for 55 years has stood as a beacon of hope fighting white supremacy and various forms of injustice to create a multiracial democracy where we can all live and thrive,\u201d Bryan Fair, the interim president and CEO of SPLC, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government can\u2019t prosecute the SPLC as payback for its protected speech \u2014 it violates basic constitutional rights,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The administration has painted SPLC as partisan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Founded in 1971 as a civil rights organization, the SPLC over the decades has used litigation to fight white supremacist groups. It also tracks the activities and locations of domestic extremists. But its work has made it a popular target among Republicans who see it as overly leftist and partisan.<\/p>\n

The center, for instance, received fresh attention last year after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk because the SPLC had included a section on the group that Kirk founded and led, Turning Point USA, in a report titled \u201cThe Year in Hate and Extremism 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n

FBI Director Kash Patel announced in October that the bureau would be severing its relationship with the SPLC, saying it had turned into a \u201cpartisan smear machine,\u201d and he accused it of defaming \u201cmainstream Americans\u201d with its \u201chate map\u201d that documents alleged anti-government and hate groups inside the United States.<\/p>\n

The defense motion says \u201canimus\u201d from senior levels of the administration helped shape the indictment.<\/p>\n

It cites, among other comments, a statement from Trump himself deriding the SPLC as \u201ca total scam run by the Democrats,\u201d as well as a news media interview in which Harmeet Dhillon, the Justice Department\u2019s top civil rights official, said the indictment was \u201cpersonal\u201d to her because she had \u201ca lot of journalist friends \u2026 and groups that I\u2019ve represented who have been targeted by the Southern Poverty Law Center.\u201d<\/p>\n

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WASHINGTON | A Justice Department indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center is part of a \u201ctop-down\u201d campaign of retribution against President Donald Trump\u2019s perceived political enemies and constitutes a vindictive prosecution that must be dismissed, lawyers for the nonprofit argued Tuesday in urging a judge to toss the case out. The Alabama-based nonprofit was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1101,1093,1094,1133,1134,136,1103,63,1144],"tags":[312,45,1290,941,315,1555],"class_list":["post-1493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-0-no-apple-publish","category-0recent-headlines","category-0trending","category-1gridnation","category-1gridnationandstate","category-nation-2","category-uncategorized","category-world","category-z-ntl-galley","tag-bryan-fair","tag-donald-trump","tag-justice-department","tag-kilmar-abrego-garcia","tag-southern-poverty-law-center","tag-todd-blanche"],"yoast_head":"\nSouthern Poverty Law Center seeks dismissal of \u2018vindictive\u2019 Justice Department indictment - Denver Moving Chronicle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=1493\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Southern Poverty Law Center seeks dismissal of \u2018vindictive\u2019 Justice Department indictment - Denver Moving Chronicle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"WASHINGTON | A Justice Department indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center is part of a \u201ctop-down\u201d campaign of retribution against President Donald Trump\u2019s perceived political enemies and constitutes a vindictive prosecution that must be dismissed, lawyers for the nonprofit argued Tuesday in urging a judge to toss the case out. 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