A federal judge on Friday denied the Southern Poverty Law Center’s bid to toss the criminal indictment on vindictive prosecution.
In May, the SPLC filed a motion arguing vindictive prosecution.
The hate group argued that the charges brought against them were a result of targeting by the DOJ and violated the organization’s right to due process.
US District Judge Emily Marks, a Trump appointee of the US District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, said it is just speculation that President Trump and Justice Department officials had a role in the criminal indictment.
“The SPLC has failed to offer some evidence tending to show animus on the part of the prosecutors involved in bringing this case and that such animus resulted in the prosecution, the showing required for discovery. Because it cannot satisfy that standard, it necessarily fails to satisfy the higher standard that would entitle it to dismissal of the indictment. Accordingly, the SPLC’s motion is due to be denied,” the judge wrote in a 36-page opinion reviewed by The Gateway Pundit.
The Justice Department in April indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center on 11 counts, including wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering.
The SPLC was indicted for secretly funneling more than $3 million in funds to members of white supremacist and extremist groups, the DOJ said.
A grand jury in the Middle District of Alabama returned an 11-count indictment against the SPLC.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the grand jury indicted the SPLC on 6 counts of wire fraud, four counts of bank fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel held a press conference to announce the federal charges.
“The SPLC was not dismantling these groups. It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred,” Blanche said.
WATCH:
BREAKING: Acting AG Blanche and FBI Director Patel announce a grand jury has INDICTED leftist NGO Southern Poverty Law Center on 11 COUNTS
This is MASSIVE!
SPLC said they were “fighting white supremacy,” but they were “MANUFACTURING the extremism it purports to expose” by… pic.twitter.com/WtyvBUuwrW
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) April 21, 2026
FBI Director Kash Patel said the SPLC used donor money to pay the leaders of the Ku Klux Klan and other extremist groups to stage “hate crimes.
The SPLC created shell companies to conceal their role in funding the extremist groups.
“They used the fraudulently raised money by lying to their donor network — thousands of Americans, to go ahead and actually pay the leadership of these supposed violent extremist groups,” Patel said.
“Furthermore, our investigation revealed that the Southern Poverty Law Center, on top of perpetuating this widespread decade-long multimillion dollar fraud, conducted more criminal activity,” he added.
“They used the FRAUDULENTLY raised money by lying to their donor network—THOUSANDS of… pic.twitter.com/wqTgNWEJsY
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) April 21, 2026
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