Last month, the Justice Department targeted a central hub of the Left’s cancel culture machine that weaponized the federal government under President Joe Biden. Just over a week later, Democrats received a “whistleblower” report claiming that the DOJ rushed the indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center.
To my eyes, this looks like a deep state operation to undermine the government’s case and prop up the SPLC’s flagging reputation.
A federal grand jury indicted the SPLC on wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy charges for sending money to “field sources,” members of the very white supremacist groups the center claims it exists to dismantle. The SPLC did not deny funding members of the Ku Klux Klan and the Aryan Nations, but insisted the funds were part of an informant program that it used to prevent violent attacks.
Reps. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., told the media they sent letters to Kevin P. Davidson, acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama, and Associate Deputy Attorney General Aakash Singh, claiming some insider information that’s rather convenient for their narrative.
They cited “whistleblower information” in stating that Singh ordered Davidson’s office “to rush through the indictment of the SPLC, despite serious concerns about the strength of the case.”
‘Systematic Flaws’
Raskin and Scanlon mentioned “systematic flaws” in the indictment. They accused Singh of attacking “a preeminent civil rights organization, the SPLC, for the ‘crime’ of attempting to study, investigate, and expose white nationalist groups.”
The Democrats noted that the FBI also uses paid informants, and they echoed the SPLC’s claim that it fed information to the FBI that it received from informants. “Should the FBI itself be indicted as a co-conspirator?” they asked.
Raskin and Scanlon suggested the DOJ brought the case because “the SPLC has publicly opposed and exposed numerous organizations that support the president and do his bidding—like the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and the Three Percenters—and called them hate groups.”
The Democrats insinuated that Trump is on the side of the KKK. “No one is accusing the Trump administration of working for the white nationalist groups, but they do seem to have the same enemies,” they wrote.
Big Problems With the Democrats’ SPLC Defense
When reached for comment, Davidson told The Daily Signal that he has yet to receive any letter from the Democrats.
“As I have not received a letter, four days after the media received it, I will simply state that the evidence in the case supports every word in the indictment and I look forward to litigating the case in court,” the acting U.S. attorney told The Daily Signal.
That doesn’t exactly sound like a man who harbors “serious concerns about the strength of the case.”
In fact, Democrats should be the ones harboring serious concerns about the SPLC’s ability to defend itself.
The indictment doesn’t just claim that the SPLC paid “field sources” inside the KKK and other white nationalist groups—it also states that the SPLC was supervising the “racist postings” of an organizer of the Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally.
Raskin and Scanlon also failed to mention that, while the SPLC reportedly did hand over some information from “field sources” to law enforcement, it kept the program secret.
Perhaps the largest omission, however, involves the fact that the SPLC doesn’t just face charges for allegedly misleading donors—it also faces charges for lying to banks. If the indictment correctly quotes the key financial documents—and neither Raskin nor Scanlon suggests it does not—the Justice Department has the SPLC dead to rights on bank fraud.
A Deep State Effort?
Last year, an RMG Research poll found that 75% of Washington, D.C.-area federal employees who made at least $150,000 a year and who voted for Kamala Harris in 2024 would disobey a lawful Trump order if they consider it bad policy. While many of these bureaucrats may have left the government since then, it stands to reason that someone with this mindset might be behind the Democrats’ letter.
After all, the SPLC had a rather large footprint in the Biden administration. SPLC leaders and staff cultivated relationships with the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, the FBI cited the SPLC in targeting “radical-traditional Catholics,” President Biden appointed an SPLC attorney to a top federal judgeship, and SPLC staff briefed DOJ prosecutors.
It stands to reason that some left-leaning Justice Department holdovers from the Biden administration might be none-too-happy to see the SPLC facing an indictment.
‘The Right Side of History’
Raskin and Scanlon didn’t just go public to condemn the indictment—they did so to make a statement. They suggested the SPLC is on the “right side of history” against the Trump administration.
With all due respect, they only think so because they cherry-picked the data. Sure, the SPLC did noble work in the beginning, but it has long since transformed into a far-left smear factory. Its “hate map” doesn’t just include the KKK and the Proud Boys—it also includes mainstream conservative and Christian groups, including Moms for Liberty, the Family Research Council, PragerU, Defending Education, and even Turning Point USA.
Perhaps Davidson didn’t get the letter because the Democrats thought twice about sending it. They should take a closer look at the indictment and ask if they really want to be defending the SPLC.
