5 ms·

Southern Poverty Law Center indicted for fraud, money laundering

52 points by f38zf5vdt 5mo ago

bediger4000 5mo ago
By Trump's personalist DoJ. Presuming good faith on the part of Trump admin feds is a journalistic mistake.
- deleted 5mo ago
  [deleted]
- SV_BubbleTime 5mo ago
  [flagged]
  - defrost 5mo ago
    > what kind of mindless ideologue thinks this was just a whim for giggles? Likely not a single one - it's been starkly clear for more than a year that the current US Federal DoJ is being wielded not on a whim for shits and giggles but for revenge and manipulation.
    - rationalist 5mo ago
      Then either they shouldn't be laundering money, or we should repeal that law.
      - cosmicgadget 5mo ago
        Oh did we already get a guilty verdict?
      - defrost 5mo ago
        Tangential to the deeper and more problematic issue with the recent DoJ, repeated malicious prosecutions at a scale not seen before.
        rationalist 5mo ago
        I don't like malicious prosecutions. And nothing prevents the other side once the pendulum swings back in the other direction, from doing the same as long as there are enough laws on the books that this is true: "Show me the man, and I'll show you the crime."
      - SV_BubbleTime 5mo ago
        I mean, yeah maybe. The other hand put yourself in their position. I mean me alone… the number of times I’ve woken up and found myself committing wire fraud and money laundering in order to pay KKK and neo Nazi groups is like geez, Tuesday already?
  - Vegenoid 5mo ago
    > They are indicted in federal court… what kind of mindless ideologue thinks this was just a whim for giggles? It is well-known that the bar for securing an indictment is very low. There is a famous quote about it: "Any good prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich." It too is well-known that the Trump administration is exerting great pressure on the DOJ to charge political opponents with crimes. The most public of these was when the DOJ twice failed to secure an indictment against Letitia James, following pressure from Trump and the firing of DOJ prosecutors who resisted pursuing the case against James. This was notable because indictments are so easy to get. The current acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche, was asked about a message Trump sent to the previous AG (Bondi), where Trump wrote ""What about Comey, Adam 'Shifty' Schiff, Leticia??? ... They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!". Blanche stated ""That type of communication from President Trump should make every American happy". The SPLC has been highly critical of Trump for years, and been a legal thorn in his side. It's always been the case that a case being brought shouldn't be taken as any implication of guilt, and it is especially true in this case. The evidence, or lack thereof, will be revealed in court in due time.
  - cosmicgadget 5mo ago
    > They are indicted in federal court… what kind of mindless ideologue thinks this was just a whim for giggles? Have you been following the DOJ at all? A malicious prosecution is 100% on brand.
jonahbenton 5mo ago
Todd Blanche, Trump's personal lawyer, digs the DoJ deeper into irreversible reputational debt.
- crises-luff-6b 5mo ago
  [dead]
xrd 5mo ago
SPLC activities: "...including filing litigation on voting rights and prisoner rights." I can imagine these actions would be inconvenient for the Trump administration.
- SV_BubbleTime 5mo ago
  I imagine if they were committing fraud, that indeed would be convenient for the Trump Admin… it is also entirely unrelated if the fraud has taken place.
- enoint 5mo ago
  I predict that a settlement includes the following demands: SPLC destroy all information it has about the Fred Trump lawsuit. Especially the records of Fred Trump arrested for punching a cop during a KKK rally in Queens. Proud Boys, Oath Keepers etc. removed from the database as Jan 6 is rewritten. And the grand jury testimony likely includes discussion about why SPLC shell companies are fraud but other shell companies are respectable. I predict this testimony was immediately sealed.
drob518 5mo ago
They were paying KKK members and Nazis. The scam was roughly the same as firemen paying arsonists to justify their salaries.
- gruez 5mo ago
  >The scam was roughly the same as firemen paying arsonists to justify their salaries. What about paying low level arsonists to rat out their boss?
  - drob518 5mo ago
    Private non-profits don’t do that. Police do that.
    - gruez 5mo ago
      Why? It's not obvious why only cops can pay money for informants. You might say that they're paying criminals, but that's not clear either. The US has quite liberal free speech laws. You can say a lot of objectionable things without violating any laws.
      - rationalist 5mo ago
        > You might say that they're paying criminals, but that's not clear either. The US has quite liberal free speech laws. You specified paying arsonists in your first comment. I assume arson is a criminal action and not protected by free speech.
        SV_BubbleTime 5mo ago
        True, like wire fraud and money laundering.
        Cytobit 5mo ago
        It's not illegal to give a criminal money. People donate to Trump all the time.
xvxvx 5mo ago
“The SPLC was not dismantling the groups,” Blanche said. “It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.” There was always something suspicious about the SPLC, almost like a big brother of the ADL. Both organizations profit greatly from the very thing they supposedly fight. Why dismantle something when you can turn it into a cash cow? The past decade has been a real eye opener for me. It pays to critique absolutely everything, especially those deemed above reproach. There are less than 4,000 neo-Nazis in the US, and less than 8,000 KKK members. 12,000 equates to just 0.0035% of the U.S. population, the same number as people who suffer from dwarfism. Combined, the SPLC and ADL are worth about a billion dollars.
- SV_BubbleTime 5mo ago
  >Combined, the SPLC and ADL are worth about a billion dollars. To be fair, that seems like the vast majority weighted to the ADL. But otherwise, yes, if you have ever looked at SPLC, it’s been a little curious at best. I believe nothing right away, but if the claim is that the demand for racism outweighed the supply, I can image less plausible things that the indictment. Edit: I had no idea SPLC was so big. I guess I was confusing ADL for AIPAC.
  - xvxvx 5mo ago
    The SPLC is bigger than the ADL in terms of financial size. The SPLC has about $787 million in net assets and $129 million annual revenue (FY2024), compared to the ADL’s $87 million net assets (consolidated) and $163 million revenue. This was surprising to me.
- cindyllm 5mo ago
  [dead]
- HWR_14 5mo ago
  > There are less than 4,000 neo-Nazis in the US Do you have a source on that statistic? Because I just don't believe it.
jocelyner 5mo ago
[flagged]
jauntywundrkind 5mo ago
I guess we might see as the case actually starts up, but I tend towards this basic posture: > Infiltrating hate groups with informants is something that goes way back to the civil rights era and before. It's never been something only the government can do, especially when the government is more likely to be showing up for the white power happy hour every third Thursday at Chili's. https://bsky.app/profile/andycraig.bsky.social/post/3mjzzezdfic25 https://bsky.app/profile/andycraig.bsky.social/post/3mjzzezd... And to be extremely skeptical of this administration working in good faith. The lawfare to destroy the good, to destroy institutions, by the very worst, is just out of control. The expression of power of the rich to destroy has gone up and up and up, and they keep getting by even as they destroy load bearing elements of society: > I will say, frivolously suing a nonprofit for fraud has become A Thing recently. See, e.g., James Huntsman's suit against the Mormon Church or Elon Musk's against OpenAI. > But rich people wasting money to punish nonprofits they no longer like is one thing;* the government doing it is another. https://bsky.app/profile/smbrnsn.bsky.social/post/3mk224wrzmc2c https://bsky.app/profile/smbrnsn.bsky.social/post/3mk224wrzm... The FBI had been paying the SPLC to do just this sort of thing, until the new extremist administration stepped in. The people waging this case know all that. The donors new the work the SPLC did. And it's quite clear they can't be expected to show receipts, and safely show where all the money goes. https://bsky.app/profile/tomjoscelyn.bsky.social/post/3mk25s5ir5k2l https://bsky.app/profile/tomjoscelyn.bsky.social/post/3mk25s... More despicable illegitemate mis-governance as usual by the most chaotic evil US government we have ever had.
- fuckinpuppers 5mo ago
  Yes this is lawfare. They paid people to infiltrate. That’s exactly what going undercover is, and we don’t have any problems with that. This is them applying a bias against an institution they don’t like by framing it as fraud and abuse (while they ransack the country at levels 100x larger)
  - SV_BubbleTime 5mo ago
    The issue is not paying people to infiltrate it is the fraud and money laundering. Did you read the indictment?
TimK65 5mo ago
https://www.lawdork.com/p/splc-indictment-united-klans-of-america https://www.lawdork.com/p/splc-indictment-united-klans-of-am...
- SV_BubbleTime 5mo ago
  No one, literally no one has said the issue is with paying KKK and neo Nazi group for “information”. The issue the DOJ has seems to be the alleged money laundering, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit fraud.
  - Arodex 5mo ago
    Which the article adresses, and it is ridiculous as well. Learn to read, and learn to think. Another article that completely demolishes that poor attempt by a sycophant and a drunkard to do anything Trump ordered them to do: https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-doj-will-avenge-the-kkk-by https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-doj-will-avenge-the-kkk-...
crises-luff-6b 5mo ago
[dead]

52 points by f38zf5vdt 5mo ago

bediger4000 5mo ago

By Trump's personalist DoJ. Presuming good faith on the part of Trump admin feds is a journalistic mistake.

deleted 5mo ago
[deleted]
SV_BubbleTime 5mo ago
[flagged]
- defrost 5mo ago
  > what kind of mindless ideologue thinks this was just a whim for giggles? Likely not a single one - it's been starkly clear for more than a year that the current US Federal DoJ is being wielded not on a whim for shits and giggles but for revenge and manipulation.
  - rationalist 5mo ago
    Then either they shouldn't be laundering money, or we should repeal that law.
    - cosmicgadget 5mo ago
      Oh did we already get a guilty verdict?
    - defrost 5mo ago
      Tangential to the deeper and more problematic issue with the recent DoJ, repeated malicious prosecutions at a scale not seen before.
      - rationalist 5mo ago
        I don't like malicious prosecutions. And nothing prevents the other side once the pendulum swings back in the other direction, from doing the same as long as there are enough laws on the books that this is true: "Show me the man, and I'll show you the crime."
    - SV_BubbleTime 5mo ago
      I mean, yeah maybe. The other hand put yourself in their position. I mean me alone… the number of times I’ve woken up and found myself committing wire fraud and money laundering in order to pay KKK and neo Nazi groups is like geez, Tuesday already?
- Vegenoid 5mo ago
  > They are indicted in federal court… what kind of mindless ideologue thinks this was just a whim for giggles? It is well-known that the bar for securing an indictment is very low. There is a famous quote about it: "Any good prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich." It too is well-known that the Trump administration is exerting great pressure on the DOJ to charge political opponents with crimes. The most public of these was when the DOJ twice failed to secure an indictment against Letitia James, following pressure from Trump and the firing of DOJ prosecutors who resisted pursuing the case against James. This was notable because indictments are so easy to get. The current acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche, was asked about a message Trump sent to the previous AG (Bondi), where Trump wrote ""What about Comey, Adam 'Shifty' Schiff, Leticia??? ... They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!". Blanche stated ""That type of communication from President Trump should make every American happy". The SPLC has been highly critical of Trump for years, and been a legal thorn in his side. It's always been the case that a case being brought shouldn't be taken as any implication of guilt, and it is especially true in this case. The evidence, or lack thereof, will be revealed in court in due time.
- cosmicgadget 5mo ago
  > They are indicted in federal court… what kind of mindless ideologue thinks this was just a whim for giggles? Have you been following the DOJ at all? A malicious prosecution is 100% on brand.

jonahbenton 5mo ago

Todd Blanche, Trump's personal lawyer, digs the DoJ deeper into irreversible reputational debt.

crises-luff-6b 5mo ago
[dead]

xrd 5mo ago

SPLC activities: "...including filing litigation on voting rights and prisoner rights." I can imagine these actions would be inconvenient for the Trump administration.

SV_BubbleTime 5mo ago
I imagine if they were committing fraud, that indeed would be convenient for the Trump Admin… it is also entirely unrelated if the fraud has taken place.
enoint 5mo ago
I predict that a settlement includes the following demands: SPLC destroy all information it has about the Fred Trump lawsuit. Especially the records of Fred Trump arrested for punching a cop during a KKK rally in Queens. Proud Boys, Oath Keepers etc. removed from the database as Jan 6 is rewritten. And the grand jury testimony likely includes discussion about why SPLC shell companies are fraud but other shell companies are respectable. I predict this testimony was immediately sealed.

drob518 5mo ago

They were paying KKK members and Nazis. The scam was roughly the same as firemen paying arsonists to justify their salaries.

gruez 5mo ago
>The scam was roughly the same as firemen paying arsonists to justify their salaries. What about paying low level arsonists to rat out their boss?
- drob518 5mo ago
  Private non-profits don’t do that. Police do that.
  - gruez 5mo ago
    Why? It's not obvious why only cops can pay money for informants. You might say that they're paying criminals, but that's not clear either. The US has quite liberal free speech laws. You can say a lot of objectionable things without violating any laws.
    - rationalist 5mo ago
      > You might say that they're paying criminals, but that's not clear either. The US has quite liberal free speech laws. You specified paying arsonists in your first comment. I assume arson is a criminal action and not protected by free speech.
      - SV_BubbleTime 5mo ago
        True, like wire fraud and money laundering.
      - Cytobit 5mo ago
        It's not illegal to give a criminal money. People donate to Trump all the time.

xvxvx 5mo ago

“The SPLC was not dismantling the groups,” Blanche said. “It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.” There was always something suspicious about the SPLC, almost like a big brother of the ADL. Both organizations profit greatly from the very thing they supposedly fight. Why dismantle something when you can turn it into a cash cow? The past decade has been a real eye opener for me. It pays to critique absolutely everything, especially those deemed above reproach. There are less than 4,000 neo-Nazis in the US, and less than 8,000 KKK members. 12,000 equates to just 0.0035% of the U.S. population, the same number as people who suffer from dwarfism. Combined, the SPLC and ADL are worth about a billion dollars.

SV_BubbleTime 5mo ago
>Combined, the SPLC and ADL are worth about a billion dollars. To be fair, that seems like the vast majority weighted to the ADL. But otherwise, yes, if you have ever looked at SPLC, it’s been a little curious at best. I believe nothing right away, but if the claim is that the demand for racism outweighed the supply, I can image less plausible things that the indictment. Edit: I had no idea SPLC was so big. I guess I was confusing ADL for AIPAC.
- xvxvx 5mo ago
  The SPLC is bigger than the ADL in terms of financial size. The SPLC has about $787 million in net assets and $129 million annual revenue (FY2024), compared to the ADL’s $87 million net assets (consolidated) and $163 million revenue. This was surprising to me.
cindyllm 5mo ago
[dead]
HWR_14 5mo ago
> There are less than 4,000 neo-Nazis in the US Do you have a source on that statistic? Because I just don't believe it.

jocelyner 5mo ago

[flagged]

jauntywundrkind 5mo ago

I guess we might see as the case actually starts up, but I tend towards this basic posture: > Infiltrating hate groups with informants is something that goes way back to the civil rights era and before. It's never been something only the government can do, especially when the government is more likely to be showing up for the white power happy hour every third Thursday at Chili's. https://bsky.app/profile/andycraig.bsky.social/post/3mjzzezdfic25 https://bsky.app/profile/andycraig.bsky.social/post/3mjzzezd... And to be extremely skeptical of this administration working in good faith. The lawfare to destroy the good, to destroy institutions, by the very worst, is just out of control. The expression of power of the rich to destroy has gone up and up and up, and they keep getting by even as they destroy load bearing elements of society: > I will say, frivolously suing a nonprofit for fraud has become A Thing recently. See, e.g., James Huntsman's suit against the Mormon Church or Elon Musk's against OpenAI. > But rich people wasting money to punish nonprofits they no longer like is one thing;* the government doing it is another. https://bsky.app/profile/smbrnsn.bsky.social/post/3mk224wrzmc2c https://bsky.app/profile/smbrnsn.bsky.social/post/3mk224wrzm... The FBI had been paying the SPLC to do just this sort of thing, until the new extremist administration stepped in. The people waging this case know all that. The donors new the work the SPLC did. And it's quite clear they can't be expected to show receipts, and safely show where all the money goes. https://bsky.app/profile/tomjoscelyn.bsky.social/post/3mk25s5ir5k2l https://bsky.app/profile/tomjoscelyn.bsky.social/post/3mk25s... More despicable illegitemate mis-governance as usual by the most chaotic evil US government we have ever had.

fuckinpuppers 5mo ago
Yes this is lawfare. They paid people to infiltrate. That’s exactly what going undercover is, and we don’t have any problems with that. This is them applying a bias against an institution they don’t like by framing it as fraud and abuse (while they ransack the country at levels 100x larger)
- SV_BubbleTime 5mo ago
  The issue is not paying people to infiltrate it is the fraud and money laundering. Did you read the indictment?

TimK65 5mo ago

https://www.lawdork.com/p/splc-indictment-united-klans-of-america https://www.lawdork.com/p/splc-indictment-united-klans-of-am...

SV_BubbleTime 5mo ago
No one, literally no one has said the issue is with paying KKK and neo Nazi group for “information”. The issue the DOJ has seems to be the alleged money laundering, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit fraud.
- Arodex 5mo ago
  Which the article adresses, and it is ridiculous as well. Learn to read, and learn to think. Another article that completely demolishes that poor attempt by a sycophant and a drunkard to do anything Trump ordered them to do: https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-doj-will-avenge-the-kkk-by https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-doj-will-avenge-the-kkk-...

crises-luff-6b 5mo ago

[dead]