SPLC Softened Criticism Of Hate Group To Avoid Scaring Off New Members, DOJ Says

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) changed its website to “soften” criticism of a hate group that it wished to expand as it covertly funded racist movements, prosecutors alleged Tuesday.

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A secretly-paid SPLC informant asked the leftist nonprofit 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 Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a against the nonprofit. The SPLC then allegedly edited the website, underscoring the DOJ’s criminal charges in April based on the group’s alleged conspiracy to support racist extremists while raking in millions of dollars in donations to advocate against them. (RELATED: Leftist Watchdog That Labeled Charlie Kirk Extremist For Years Suddenly Worried About ‘Division’ After Killing)

The SPLC did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment for this story. The Alabama-based charity has denied all wrongdoing and motioned to have the case dismissed as a “vindictive prosecution” .

The group secretly paid the unnamed white nationalist leader more than $70,000 in donor funds between 2010 and 2016, the DOJ alleged. The group first offered him money after he reached out unprompted with a plan to turn his life away from white nationalist activism, according to the filing. He allegedly held leading roles in the National Socialist Party of America and the Aryan Nations and was a Ku Klux Klan member.

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Additionally, the informant “used [SPLC] donors’ money to, among other things, travel to 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,” the filing says.

The SPLC is charged with wire fraud, issuing false statements to a federally insured bank and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering over its informant program. The organization faces forfeiture of assets linked to the alleged offenses if convicted.

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