Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks during a press conference with FBI Director Kash Patel next to him, at the Department of Justice in Washington, DC, on April 21, 2026.
Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images
The Department of Justice on Tuesday announced a bombshell indictment accusing the Southern Poverty Law Center of secretly funding right-wing extremist groups that it claimed to be battling.
“The SPLC was not dismantling the groups,” said Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche at a press conference. “It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.”
The SPLC, which is a non-profit civil rights group, earlier Tuesday in a statement said it was the subject of a criminal probe by the DOJ.
“Although we don’t know all the details, the focus appears to be on the SPLC’s prior use of paid confidential informants to gather credible intelligence on extremely violent groups,” CEO Bryan Fair said in a statement reported by The Associated Press.
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