White supremacists spin a Justice Department indictment against a hate-monitoring group to legitimize extremism and expand recruitment

Attorney General Todd Blanche announces the indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center on April 21, 2026, in Washington. Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images In April 2026, a federal grand jury returned indictments charging the Southern Poverty Law Center with wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The indictment alleges the SPLC, a nonprofit legal advocacy group, secretly funneled more than US$3 million in donated funds to people associated with violent…