What part of this conduct is illegal, though?
In the video posted Tuesday morning, CEO Bryan Fair said the probe focuses on bringing potential charges against both the organization and individuals connected to the group."The focus appears to be on the SPLC's prior use of paid confidential informants to gather credible intelligence on extremely violent groups," he said."This use of informants was necessary because we are no stranger to threats of violence. In 1983, our offices were firebombed, and in the years since, there have been countless credible threats against our staff," he said. "For decades, we engaged in unprecedented litigation to dismantle the Klan and other hate groups. In light of that work, we sought to protect the safety of our staff and the public. We frequently shared what we learned from informants with local and federal law enforcement, including the FBI. "The probe comes as the Justice Department has stepped up its scrutiny of nonprofits that it accuses of being involved with or funding "domestic terrorism." It was not clear if the criminal investigation is related to that initiative, and a spokesperson for the SPLC did not know the Justice Department's legal theory behind the probe.
Insofar as you are publishing the findings of such research, it's protected journalism under the first amendment as far as I can tell. The National Enquirer pays sources for scoops; that's how they nailed John Edwards back in 2007. As far as I know the fact that they paid for the information they published didn't make it illegal. Any of you lawyers have a theory about how this could be a crime?
12 comments:
It sounds loosely analogous to the Left-wing prosecutors going after Center for Medical Progress, Project Veritas, et al..
It also could be a matter of corporate espionage in SPLC's case.
On the other hand, I'm not a lawyer....
Eric Hines
Now (21/1710 Apr), Fox News is reporting specific charges include wire fraud and bank fraud.
Eric Hines
Per Technofog on Substack, the charges stem from the SPLC claiming to donors their funds would be used to 'dismantle' various extremist groups at the same time the SPLC was either directly or via false front 'organizations' sending money to promote the activities of the same organizations it was claiming it would dismantle. The charges claim over $3 million dollars were distributed via these means. Over $270,000 was paid to an organizer of the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville VA in 2017 (identified by one source as Jason Kessler), including attendance at the direction of the SPLC and making inflammatory postings on social media under their supervision. Over $1 million was paid to two informants that were members of the National Alliance (neo Nazis) between 2013 and 2023. At least $24,000 was paid to informants that supported the America Front and currently extant KKK organizations. From the sum of funds involved these don't appear to be stipends or occasional bounties but could likely be major sources of funding for those organization's activities.
The crimes come from misrepresenting the use of funds in donor solicitations and misrepresentations made to the financial institutions when opening accounts for the front groups. News organizations don't typically do either of those things when they pay sources for stories.
It sounds like the allegations aren't really about paying for sources, but about paying to create and sustain terrorist and extremist groups because it was useful to have them as a political foil. That's akin to how USAID was using 'aid' money to fund NGOs that were funding all sorts of bad activities. The SPLC was I suppose part of that large NGO archipelago.
That's akin to how USAID was using 'aid' money to fund NGOs that were funding all sorts of bad activities.
Not quite. USAID was funding all sorts of bad activities because those disbursing the government funds did not consider them bad activities. SPLC was funding extremist groups because it could then solicit donations on the basis of what those extremists groups were doing . Rather like seed money.
Gringo
"Salting" the mine.
Reports are that SPLC spent $275K and got back $30 MILLION in donations.
This does explain something odd about that “Unite the Right” rally. It came kind of out of nowhere, and was never repeated with any similar success. I’d never heard of most of the groups involved— unlike the KKK, which I’m old enough to remember encountering as a child when they were out passing out literature around the town square. Even then they were a bare shadow of what they had been.
But then suddenly there was this huge rally by strange new groups; and then nothing except abortive attempts when they even tried to do something again. The only one that’s successfully pulled off several more rallies is Patriot Front, and they’re an obvious FBI front.
"Obvious"?
Until further notice, one can theorize that Patriot Front was a false-flag op financed by SPLC. Why not?
The physical fitness of the members is the main thing. I don’t know how many activists you’ve met, but they tend to be scrawny or obese. Uniform physical standards implies a paymaster who insists upon them; and since it’s a mousetrap, I think it’s obviously police rather than military. Since it’s interstate, it’s Federal police. Given the nature of the draw, it’s not likely ATF or DEA. Rather, it’s in the wheelhouse of the FBI. I thus deduce, etc.
Patriot Front paraded in Chicago in the winter. Not even SPLC-funded activists would waste money like that. No one parades in Chicago in winter, because no one will see it. (Well, and if there's any wind, those marching around will freeze their various anatomical features off.)
LittleRed1
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