A federal indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center should "shock everybody in this country," acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche told Newsmax.
Blanche, speaking Wednesday on Newsmax's "Rob Schmitt Tonight," said the grand jury indictment alleges the organization spent more than $3 million over a decade on payments to individuals tied to groups it publicly claimed to oppose.
"You have a situation where you have an organization actively raising money for years and years and years, promising that their sole purpose was to root out racism," Blanche said.
"But it turns out that they were spending, in this case, over $3 million over about a 10-year period, actually paying individuals associated with the same right-wing groups that they are claiming to try to dismantle," he added.
A federal grand jury in Alabama on Tuesday indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center on 11 counts, charging the civil rights nonprofit with defrauding donors through a concealed program that allegedly paid members of the Ku Klux Klan and other extremist groups.
The case represents one of the most significant federal prosecutions brought against a leading civil rights organization.
The indictment, returned in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, charges the Montgomery, Alabama-based organization with six counts of wire fraud, four counts of making false statements to a federally insured bank, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Blanche described the alleged conduct as "the definition of a bait and switch or of a fraud," while noting those charged are presumed innocent and can challenge the allegations in court.
He said the indictment also alleges that more than $1 million was paid over several years to a senior figure connected to a hate group, calling the findings both "disheartening" and "a wake-up call."
Blanche also pointed to broader concerns that conservative voices have at times been discouraged from speaking out.
"You have conservatives in this country who are afraid to speak their minds, afraid that if they're nominated for a judgeship, for example, that organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center will come out attacking them simply for their beliefs," he said.
The Justice Department is continuing to examine actions taken during former President Joe Biden's administration, including why the prior DOJ ended the investigation, according to Blanche.
"We learned that the Biden DOJ shut down this investigation," he said. "I don't know why. We don't have answers to why they shut that down. But it certainly wasn't for the evidence that we collected over the past several months."
Blanche said the department is also reviewing documents released through a Freedom of Information Act request that appear to show coordination between the SPLC and Biden-era prosecutors.
He further said the indictment alleges that an organizer of the 2017 Charlottesville rally received "several hundred thousand dollars" from the SPLC.
"And so if you feel like there's a man behind the curtain, in this case, you were right," he said.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has not publicly responded to the allegations. The case is expected to proceed in federal court.
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