Radical activist groups circle wagons around Southern Poverty Law Center amid federal charges

Left-wing nonprofits are rallying behind the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as the self-described “beacon of hope” for “fighting white supremacy” faces federal fraud charges.

In a blog post written by National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Senior Policy Advisor Mel Wilson, Wilson said, “it is important that we stand with and support The Southern Poverty Law Center until the legal travails are complete — with full confidence that SPLC will be vindicated.”

Below her commentary, Wilson listed a number of “coalition members” that are standing with SPLC and are a part of “The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.”

The list included more than one hundred non-profit organizations.

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Separately, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) issued a press release defending SPLC, saying that it stands with the nonprofit, and accusing the Department of Justice of “targeting” the organization. 

“This reported federal targeting of SPLC appears to be a transparently political attack on the rule of law meant to undermine the vital role civil rights groups play in countering hate groups. This is unacceptable and must not stand,” CAIR’s statement read. 

“We encourage all Americans and elected officials to stand in solidarity with the SPLC and all other organizations dedicated to the protection of civil rights,” the statement continued.

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CAIR was named a co-conspirator during The Holy Land Foundation (HLF) trial from 2007-2008, where five members of the HLF were convicted of conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization, providing material support, money laundering and tax fraud after allegations that HLF funneled $12.4 million to Hamas in the early 2000s.

While CAIR never faced charges and was only named by prosecutors during the trial, the FBI cut ties with the nonprofit following the case.

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Fox News Digital reached out to NASW but did not receive a response. 

Federal authorities announced earlier this week that the Southern Poverty Law Center, known for civil rights litigation and racial justice, was indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly funneling millions to members of violent extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations and the National Socialist Party of America (American Nazi Party).

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According to the SPLC’s Form 990 filing with the IRS, the 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization posted roughly $129 million in total revenue in fiscal year 2024 with nearly $800 million in total assets.

The organization says that the money was for informants to report back to SPLC and provide information about the groups and their inner workings. 

The indictment said that one alleged informant, who was paid $270,000, shared “racist social media posts” under SPLC supervision, and that the nonprofit “helped organize transportation to events” during the deadly 2017 “Unite the Right” event in Charlottesville, Virginia.

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“These individuals risked their lives to infiltrate and inform on the activities of our nation’s most radical and violent extremist groups,” SPLC Interim President and CEO Bryan Fair said in a video statement. “When we began working with informants, we were living in the shadow of the height of the civil rights movement, which had seen bombings at churches, state-sponsored violence against demonstrators, and the murders of activists that went unanswered by the justice system.”

In 1994, an investigative series by the Montgomery Advertiser examined the financials of SPLC at the time, finding that the founder was heavily focused on fundraising for the nonprofit, running the organization like a business or corporation. It also found that the salaries of SPLC were high, and that the nonprofit raised significantly more money than it spent. 

The Montgomery Advertiser was a finalist for the 1995 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Journalism due to the series on SPLC.

SPLC co-founder Joe Levin rejected the paper’s claims at the time.

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Margaret Huang, who served as the CEO of the nonprofit until her resignation last summer, made $522,000 a year as reported by Charity Watch, which gave SPLC an “F” rating in May 2025 “due to it having six years’ worth of available assets in reserve.”

The indictments also raise questions about whether SPLC donors were misled on how their money was being spent, including payments made to members of the KKK and other extremist groups. 

“The SPLC indictment is legally valid, well-pleaded, and built to survive motion practice, former federal prosecutor and legal expert Andrew Cherkasky told Fox News Digital. “The wire fraud counts rest on specific, quoted solicitations telling donors their money would be used to ‘dismantle’ violent extremist groups, paired with the material omission that more than three million dollars flowed to the leaders, fundraisers, and organizers of those very same groups.”

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Cherkasky noted that paying informants is not illegal, and that journalists, watchdog groups and the government regularly use them. But he noted “a nonprofit is criminally liable for the acts of its agents committed within the scope of their duties and for the organization’s benefit.”

“A high-level SPLC employee coordinated payment for documents stolen by a paid source who twice burglarized an extremist group’s headquarters, and a different source was paid six thousand dollars to falsely confess to the theft,” Cherkasky explained. “If proven, that is sponsored criminal conduct directed from inside the organization, and it carries institutional exposure that extends beyond the criminal counts to potential loss of tax-exempt status, civil liability to victims, and fiduciary exposure for directors and officers.”

FBI Director Kash Patel said Tuesday that SPLC was not honest or transparent with its donors.

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“They lied to their donors, vowing to dismantle violent extremist groups, and actually turned around and paid the leaders of these very extremist groups — even utilizing the funds to have these groups facilitate the commission of state and federal crimes,” Patel said. “That is illegal — and this is an ongoing investigation against all individuals involved.”

Fox News Digital reached out to SPLC, but did not receive a response.