Usually, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is on the ramparts for civil rights groups, but in this day of Orwellian reversals, the groups are now on guard to defend the justice advocacy nonprofit, which has recently been indicted by the Trump administration.
It was never a matter of how, but when the attack would come, and now the SPLC has been charged with fraud and money laundering. We needn’t muse about the charges, which claim the organization paid informants in extremist groups, violated the law, and funded hate organizations, because they are as ludicrous as they are politically motivated. Basically, this is just the first shot across the bow. As civil rights groups rush to defend SPLC, they should be wary that they may be victims of the next volleys.
Among the activists outraged by the indictments was Maya Wiley, president and chief executive of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, which is a collective of many civil rights groups. “It’s a blatantly obvious attack on civil rights and civil liberties to whitewash the foot soldiers of the great replacement theory and other extremists. This coalition isn’t going silent,” she said. Her comments were consistent with a statement issued by a coalition of groups, although that did not directly address the indictment.
To prosecute such white supremacist groups as the Ku Klux Klan, it was necessary to infiltrate them, and this method, the Justice Department alleges, violated federal law via its network of paid informants, and thereby funded hate groups and misled SPLC donors.
Acting Attorney General (AG) Todd Blanche said during a recent news conference that “The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence.” As far as we can see, there is no need to manufacture something that has been endemic in America since its inception.
To expect Blanche to cite the real history of the Ku Klux Klan would contradict his boss and jeopardize the possibility of his becoming the official AG. Moreover, it provides him with the kind of nefarious credentials and momentum to prosecute — nay, persecute — the coterie of Trump’s so-called enemies.
We wholeheartedly agree with Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, when he said, “The indictment is nakedly political and represents the Justice Department turning on itself. It places the Justice Department in the posture of, in effect, defending white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan and others.” That may be an incontrovertible purpose.