Trump DOJ charges far-left Southern Poverty Law Center that targets traditional Catholics

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Trump DOJ charges far-left Southern Poverty Law Center that targets traditional Catholics
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which was cited in an infamous Biden administration memo targeting Latin Mass Catholics, 

faces a federal indictment for bank fraud and other crimes.



Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks alongside FBI Director Kash Patel at a news conference at the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice building on April 21, 2026, in Washington, D.C.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Apr 21, 2026
MONTGOMERY, Alabama (LifeSiteNews [slightly adapted, not all hyperlinks included from original') — The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced an indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), one of the most powerful left-wing activist groups in the U.S., on 11 counts of bank fraud and other crimes.

The infamous nonprofit “secretly funneled more than $3 million in donated funds” to members of the Ku Klux Klan, the National Socialist Party of America, and other extremist organizations as part of investigations into the groups, the DOJ said on Tuesday. The SPLC failed to tell donors that it was using their money “to fund the leaders and organizers of racist groups at the same time that the SPLC was denouncing the same groups on its website,” according to the agency.

The DOJ said that the SPLC “opened bank accounts connected to a series of fictitious entities” to cover up the scheme and “made a series of false statements related to the operation of the accounts.”

“The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said. “Using donor money to allegedly profit off Klansmen cannot go unchecked. This Department of Justice will hold the SPLC and every other fraudulent organization operating with the same deceptive playbook accountable. No entity is above the law.”

“The SPLC allegedly engaged in a massive fraud operation to deceive their donors, enrich themselves, and hide their deceptive operations from the public,” FBI Director Kash Patel said. “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. That is illegal – and this is an ongoing investigation against all individuals involved.”

Democrats criticized the indictment, with far-left U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal saying that the “Southern Poverty Law Center does incredibly important work” and that she “will continue to stand with them.”

The group is one of the largest public advocacy organizations in America, with an $822 million endowment and a $129 million revenue as of 2024 and financial backing from liberal mega-donors. The SPLC has long faced criticism for lavish salaries, allegations of sexual harassment and mistreatment of staff, and transferring hundreds of millions of dollars to offshore accounts.


Southern Poverty Law Center targets traditional Catholics, other conservatives

Founded in 1971 as a civil rights legal firm, the Southern Poverty Law Center has become known in recent decades for its radical leftist activism and for smearing mainstream conservative, Catholic, and other Christian organizations as “hate groups” for opposing homosexuality and transgenderism.

The SPLC’s “hate map” features prominent pro-family organizations such as Family Research Council, Alliance Defending Freedom, and Liberty Counsel alongside terroristic white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan.

The notorious January 2023 FBI memo targeting “Radical Traditional Catholic ideology” and proposing “threat mitigation” of traditionalist Catholics notably cited the SPLC and its designation of nine Catholic organizations as “hate groups.”

The SPLC lists “anti-LGBTQ+” beliefs as one of the “extremist ideologies” that it tracks, along with “Racist Skinhead,” “Neo-Nazi,” and “Holocaust Denial” movements. The group associates “anti-LGBTQ+ hate” with the ideas that heterosexuality “is the only ‘normal’ sexuality” or that “gender can only be understood as either ‘male’ or ‘female’,” both of which Catholic teaching and the Bible uphold.

The SPLC also tracks “Radical Traditionalist Catholicism,” faulting so-called “radical traditional Catholics” for opposing “liberalizing reforms” after the Second Vatican II that “placed more power in the hands of laypeople” and claiming that “antisemitism is an inextricable part of their theology.”

Other organizations targeted by the SPLC include the Center for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam), the American Family Association, Focus on the Family, the American College of Pediatricians, the Ruth Institute, now-defunct Catholic media outlet Church Militant, and Do No Harm, which opposes underage “gender transitions.” The group absurdly lists pro-parent organizations like Moms for Liberty as extremist “antigovernment groups.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center still denounces Turning Point USA as a “hate group” as well, even after a left-wing assassin murdered its founder, Charlie Kirk, in 2025.


Homosexual activist who tried to massacre Family Research Council cited SPLC

The SPLC’s propaganda has led to violence against conservatives, including a near-massacre in 2012, when homosexual activist Floyd Lee Corkins II entered the headquarters of Family Research Council with a semi-automatic pistol and nearly 100 rounds of ammunition, seeking to “kill as many people as I could” and smear Chick-fil-A sandwiches on their faces.

Corkins, who previously considered bombing FRC’s headquarters, told FRC guard Leo Johnson “I don’t like your politics” and then shot him in the arm, though Johnson managed to disarm him and force him to the ground.

Corkins had identified FRC as a “hate group” through Southern Poverty Law Center’s website and planned to attack other pro-family groups condemned by the SPLC.

“Southern Poverty Law lists anti-gay groups,” he admitted. “I found them online, did a little research, went to the website – stuff like that.”

The LGBT activist said he hoped the shooting would “make a statement against the people who work in that building … and with their stance against gay rights.” Indeed, Corkins “would have almost certainly succeeded in committing a massacre of epic portions” had Johnson not stopped him, prosecutors said.

Corkins was later convicted of terrorism and sentenced to 25 years in prison, but the Southern Poverty Law Center has continued to brand Family Research Council as a “hate group” due to its faith-based rejection of homosexuality and gender ideology.

James Hodgkinson, the leftist who shot then-House Republican Whip Steve Scalise and sought to kill dozens of GOP congressmen at a baseball practice in 2017, had also liked the Southern Poverty Law Center on Facebook.

The SPLC has nevertheless enjoyed a close relationship with the federal government under Democratic administrations. The DOJ invited the SPLC’s co-founder – who was later fired for “inappropriate conduct” – as a speaker, and the FBI listed it as a “resource” during part of the Obama administration. The Biden DOJ listed the SPLC as an “extremism” consultant in 2021.

However, Trump’s FBI severed all ties with the group last fall, saying it had become “a partisan smear machine.”


Numerous Christian conservatives persecuted due to SPLC

Big Tech companies, including Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Amazon, have partnered with the SPLC as well, using it to flag so-called “hate groups” and remove or restrict them on their platforms.

The SPLC’s designation of Alliance Defending Freedom – one of the world’s largest conservative legal organizations – as a “hate group” led to its removal as an AmazonSmile charity in 2018. “We rely on the Southern Poverty Law Center to determine which charities are in certain ineligible categories,” Amazon said at the time.

Southern Poverty Law Center similarly prompted GuideStar to label 46 conservative organizations, including FRC, as “hate groups” and led financial companies like Mastercard, Visa, GoFundMe, Patreon, and Vanco to cut off donations to pro-family organizations and critics of Islam, as LifeSiteNews has reported.

Hyatt Hotels, Eventbrite, and video platform Vimeo have additionally blacklisted groups denounced by the SPLC.