WASHINGTON – In July 1998, Victoria Keenan and her son Jason were driving near a white supremacist compound in northern Idaho when the car backfired or stalled. Aryan Nations guards chased them, opened fire, forced them off the road and held them at gunpoint.
Two years later, a civil lawsuit brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center wona $6.3 million judgmentagainst the Aryan Nations at trial, ultimately forcing it into bankruptcy and shutting down a heavily armed encampment that had served as a hub for the nation’s most violent far-right hate groups.
The court judgment forced white supremacist leader Richard Butler to turn over the 20-acre compound to the Keenans; it was later turned into a public "peace park.”
The case was just one of many examples over the past half-century of how the Montgomery, Alabama-based nonprofit has used the courts, insider information − and persistent research and investigation − to dismantle some of the most dangerous extremist organizations in the United States, according to USA TODAY interviews and SPLC and court documents.
Since itsfounding in 1971, the SPLC also has developed close relationships with the FBI and Justice Department. The SPLC provided the agencies withresearch on hate crimeas well as intelligence developed by its network of undercover informants that was frequently shared with law enforcement agencies, those documents and interviews show.
Now the organization is at a crossroads after the DOJ hit it with araft of criminal chargeson April 21. Federal prosecutors in Alabama securedan 11-count indictmentaccusing the organization of paying millions of dollars to some of those undercover informants and hiding the real purpose of the payments from its donors. Charges include wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.
"The SPLC allegedly engaged in a massive fraud operation to deceive their donors, enrich themselves, and hide their deceptive operations from the public," FBI DirectorKash Patelsaid ina Justice Department statementannouncing the charges.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, in the same statement, accused the civil rights organization of “manufacturing racism to justify its existence."
“This Department of Justice will hold the SPLC and every other fraudulent organization operating with the same deceptive playbook accountable," Blanche said. "No entity is above the law.”
FBI Director Kash Patel in photos
The SPLC denies it broke any laws and says it intends to fight the charges, which represent the culmination of a growing rift between conservatives and the liberal-leaning group, capping a series of difficult years for the organization. After facing criticism over its internal operations and an end to its previous federal partnership, the SPLC could be hamstrung − financially, politically and in other ways − moving forward even if the prosecution is unsuccessful, observers say.
'A legendary record of decimating hate groups'
Brian Levin, a criminologist and former SPLC official in the 1990s, said that despite some recent controversies, the group “has a legendary record of decimating hate groups” like the United Klans of America, Aryan Nations and White Aryan Resistance, while also protecting vulnerable minorities through the legal process.
As such, Levin believes it is unlikely the DOJ action will put SPLC out of business. But he said the criminal case, which he believes is politically motivated, could have far-reaching repercussions.
"The threat from a weaponized federal criminal prosecution on the Southern Poverty Law Center is reverberating not only within the organization, but throughout the civil rights community writ large,” said Levin, founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.
“The case represents not only a looming abstract threat to other organizations,” Levin said, “but a disturbingly real one for SPLC including forcing undesired operational changes, incurring reputational damage and an open-ended drain of resources, obstructing coordination with law enforcement and hampering its ability to recruit a new staff.”
One thing that's clear, Levin and other hate-crime watchers said, is that the SPLC’s decades-long relationship with the feds, already deteriorating due to years of provocative political comments, is over – at least while Trump is in office.
That rupture began soon after Trump retook the White House in January 2025 and appointed Patel and Pam Bondi to run the FBI and DOJ with the stated goal of investigating whether federal civil rights laws were being used to target conservative organizations with no connection to hate groups.
In October, Patel said the bureau wassevering its ties with SPLC, following escalating complaints from conservatives and prominent Trump allies.
Patel said in October that the SPLC had been turned into a “partisan smear machine” that was defaming “mainstream Americans” through its use of a “Hate Map” that purports to document alleged anti-government and hate groups across the United States.
A model built on exposure and financial pressure
The SPLC was launched by Morris Dees and Joseph Levin Jr. to provide pro bono legal assistance for civil rights cases. "By the late 1960s, the civil rights movement had ushered in the promise of racial equality as new federal laws and decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court ended Jim Crow segregation," the group sayson its websitein describing its "history of protecting society’s most vulnerable."
By the 1980s, the SPLC, with Dees as chief litigator, began to develop a novel strategy of going after extremist groups where it hurt them the most: their finances.
Criminal convictions were often difficult to obtain, especially in conservative jurisdictions where many of the white supremacist, neo-Nazi and anti-government groups operated. Those also required complex federal investigations and prosecutions that the DOJ was not always willing to pursue. SoDees and the SPLCbegan filing civil lawsuits on behalf of victims, targeting leaders of the organizations.
The results were often devastating for those groups.
More:From Oklahoma City to Jan. 6: How the US government failed to stop the rise of domestic extremism
The SPLC establishedKlanwatchin 1981 to monitor Ku Klux Klan activity nationwide and renamed it the Intelligence Project in 1998.
That year, itwon a key federal lawsuitin Texas on behalf of the Vietnamese Fishermen’s Association against the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, stopping local militants from terrorizing immigrant fishermen.
Six years later, it won a$7 million judgment in federal courtagainst the United Klans of America, Inc., on behalf of Beulah Mae Donald, whose teenage son Michael was abducted, stabbed and lynched by Klan members in Alabama. That put out of businessone of the country’s largest Klan organizations, the same group thatbombed Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Churchin 1963, killing four Black girls.The Aryan Nations case in 2000 delivered a similar outcome for the Keenans,effectively bankrupting Aryan Nationsand Butler, one of the nation’s most influential hate proliferators.
Tracking the rise of anti-government and far-right movements
By the mid-1990s, the SPLC was also tracking the“Patriot” movement and anti-government militia groups, especially after Timothy McVeigh blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people in thedeadliest act of homegrown terrorismin U.S. history.
The group did so by monitoring public records and court filings, conducting interviews with former members and defectors – and through the use of paid confidential sources familiar with and even inside the organizations, according to contemporaneous SPLC documents, Justice Department records and USA TODAY interviews.
Sharing that information with federal law enforcement helped authorities better understand emerging threats, Levin and others said, and gather evidence against particular organizations.
While the SPLC pursued civil liability cases against the organizations, the FBI and DOJ used its information to help build criminal investigations and prosecutions.
Experts say that collaborative approach between federal authorities and the SPLC and other anti-extremism groups became a defining feature of how the U.S. government confronted the growing threat posed by organized right-wing violence over the past few decades.
That, in turn, transformed the SPLC into one of the most widely cited, and well-funded, authorities on extremist groups − including the evolving networks of domestic terror groups that rose in prominence after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.
"From the 1990s on, especially after 9/11, DOJ counterterrorism prosecutors have depended on insight and data provided by the full panoply of private watchdog organizations and think tanks, whether liberal or conservative," including the SPLC, Jeffrey Breinholt, a former senior lawyer and counterterrorism official at the Justice Department under both Republican and Democratic administrations, told USA TODAY.
A higher profile, more targets on their backs
Such victories also put a target on the backs of the SPLC – and Dees in particular.
In 1983, the group’s headquarters wasseverely damaged in an arson attack.
The group also raised its profile – and the potential for controversy – by expanding into other areas.
In 1991, for instance, it launchedTeaching Tolerance, now Learning for Justice, to provide anti-bias education to K-12 schools. By the early 2000s, it had begun dedicated tracking of anti-LGBTQ hate-groups, and in 2010 it formally expanded its hate group designations to include a major list of "anti-gay hate groups."
Conservative groups, boosted by the rise of the Christian right and the tea party,pushed back immediately, with 22 members of Congress and conservative leaders publishing apublic statementattacking the group in a full-page ad in major newspapers. The statement was organized by the powerfulFamily Research Counciland other “pro-family organizations that are working to protect and promote natural marriage and the family.”
Some of the anti-LGBTQ groups watch-listed by the SPLC like the Traditional Values Coalition were also "actively involved in spreading fear about Islam," and fighting post-9/11 efforts to establish a mosque near Ground Zero in Manhattan, the progressive think tank Political Research Associateswrote in a 2012 report.
SPLC fundraising off of Trump’s victory in 2016 paved the way for staff and endowment growth – and for efforts targeting the new administration’s policies and a sharp rise in right-wing hate groups.
"We redoubled our work to fight hate and seek justice in 2016, a year in which the presidential campaign ofDonald Trumpenergized a growing white nationalist movement and engulfed the country in a wave of xenophobia that threatened to reverse years of progress," Dees and the group's then-president, J. Richard Cohen, wrote in theopening of SPLC's 2016 Annual Reportpublished after Trump took office in January 2017.
The group's total endowment fund assets at the time were $319.3 million, the report said.
A collision course with Trump
SPLC's focus on Trump set the organization on a collision course with the new administration.
In 2018, the group was also forced to apologize to British MuslimMaajid Nawazandpay him and his think tank $3.4 millionfor inaccurately accusing him of being an "anti-Muslim extremist.
And long-simmering internal tensions boiled over within SPLC, especially regarding Dees’ fundraising and leadership styles.
The Montgomery Advertiser, a USA TODAY Network newspaper, had revealed similar issues about internal tensions and management practices decades earlier, in a series of 1994 exposés that were named afinalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
The eight-part series, “Rising Fortunes: Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center,” exposed questionable management practices at what was then the nation's best-endowed civil rights charity.
From 1984 to 1994, the Advertiser reported, the SPLC raised about $62 million in contributions but spent only a third of that on programs, prompting critics to accuse it of exaggerating the threat posed by Klan-affiliated groups even as those organizations had been significantly weakened.
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The series also scrutinized Dees’ compensation and personal life, and complaints from Black staffers who said they were marginalized inside an organization publicly devoted to racial justice.
Drawing criticism from outside and within
The SPLC also drew ire from its peers in civil rights work.
“They act like they have hegemony over how to conduct a civil rights debate in this country, which I find astrange posture coming from a group of white men," Loretta Ross, a Black woman who helped lead the Center for Democratic Renewal, an Atlanta-based group monitoring white supremacy, said in 1994.
In March 2019, SPLC staff members signed a complaint letter accusing leadership of perpetuating a "systemic culture of racism and sexism."
Dees, 82 at the time, was fired March 13, for what wasonly described as misconduct, the Advertiser reported.
The newspaper called his firing "a stunning and definitive end to a decades-long career, though questions remain about what, exactly, led to his demise."
Cohen would not elaborate but said in a statement at the time that SPLC was committed to ensuring that "the conduct of our staff reflects the mission of the organization and the values we hope to instill in the world."
Dees' termination ultimately was part of a broader shakeup, and one of several steps taken by the organization.
The SPLC announced “an immediate,top-to-bottom external review" to look into concerns about workplace culture, gender discrimination and racial inequities and ultimately made significant leadership and organizational changes. Cohenstepped down that March 19, and Michelle Obama’s former chief of staff, Tina Tchen, oversaw the probe.
“The events of the last week have been an eye-opening reminder that the walk towards justice must sometimes start at your own front door and force you to look at your past so you can improve your future,” then-SPLC board chairman Bryan Fair said in a statement.
Going after 'Make America Great Again' groups
By the time of Dees' departure, the SPLC's expanding list of "Hate Groups" and its massive fundraising efforts were putting it on a collision course with conservative organizations − and with the Trump administration's policies.
In its 2018 annual report, the SPLC said Trump "continued to fan the flames of white resentment over immigration and the country's demographics," and said it was tracking arecord high 1,020 hate groups.
It was "the fourth straight year of hate group growth,"the SPLC report said, "a 30 percent increase roughly coinciding with Trump’s campaign and presidency."
The SPLC was also becoming increasingly outspoken about high-profile issues such as LGBTQ rights and fighting conservative religious organizations and anti-DEI programs.
Backers of the SPLC, likeSex Ed for Social Change or SIECUS, say the group has always fought for those whose basic human rights have been violated and denied, including racial and ethnic minorities, women, the economically disadvantaged, immigrants, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals.
But now it was directly taking aim at the Trump administration, for instance suing over protections for transgender people in federal prisons and working with internet companies "to stamp out hateful activity" on social media platforms.
Conservative activists said the group was intentionally − and unfairly − labeling mainstream political and religious organizations as extremist, raising concerns about political bias.
SPLC's 'fear-mongering remains lucrative'
The SPLC, for instance, labeled theAlliance Defending Freedom, a prominent conservative legal organization, an "SPLC Designated Hate Group," in part for "working to develop 'religious liberty' legislation and case law that will allow the denial of goods and services to LGBTQ people on the basis of religion."
The SPLC also designated the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) in Washington, DC, an "SPLC Designated Hate Group" on its Extremist Files website, in part for its "record ofpublishing reports that hype the criminality of immigrants."
The Centersued two SPLC leaders in January 2019under the civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), seeking damages and an injunction prohibiting them "repeating the false claim that the Center is a hate group."
And that March, CIS accused SPLC of being an out-of-control juggernaut that had amassedhalf a billion dollars in assetsdespite what it said were Dees' earlier promises "to stop fundraising once the organization hit $50 million."
"At least for now, it appears that the SPLC's fear-mongering remains lucrative," CIS wrote, especially due to a "Trump bump" in funding it received after the 2016 presidential election. "Who would've guessed that when you lower your arbitrary and poorly defined standards for what constitutes a 'hate group' even further, you end up with even more 'hate groups'?"
In 2020, the SPLCwon a preliminary injunctionrequiring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release medically vulnerable detainees during the COVID-19 pandemic.
SPLC's clashes with the Trump administration continued through his first term, even as the organization went into perhaps its most turbulent period, rife with repeated leadership turnover, union fights, resignations and layoffs.
Re-engaging in Trump's second term
Confrontations with the Trump administration resumed soon after he retook the White House in January 2025.
In its annualYear in Hate & Extremism Reportin May 2025, the SPLC again took direct aim at Trump.
In the report, writers Maya Henson Carey and R.G. Cravens said that in 2024, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives "became ground zero for hard-right mobilizations to whitewash American society and protect white supremacy. These efforts built a foundation in 2024 for nationwide policy actions to follow by President Donald Trump."
By the end of 2024, 1,371 "hate and antigovernment extremist groups" were operating in the United States, the report said. Inan accompanying note, senior SPLC official Rachel Carroll Rivas said "many hate and antigovernment groups attacked bedrock anti-discrimination efforts by railing against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, or DEI."
"Some actors used threats of violence, creating chaos that opened the door for political strongmen and authoritarian measures," Rivas, at the time the interim director of SPLC's Intelligence Project, said.
On Sept. 10, Charlie Kirk, the leader of one of the groups targeted by the SPLC,was assassinated at an eventin Utah. The backlash from conservatives was immediate.
Patel, the FBI director, first cut tieswith the Anti-Defamation League, saying the Jewish group "won't partner with political frontsmasquerading as watchdogs." Conservatives had criticized the ADL for including Kirk's organization in a glossary on extremism.
Days later, on Oct. 3, Patel broke with the SPLC, saying it had unfairly labeled mainstream Christian and conservative organizations as "Hate Groups."
Then on April 21, Patel and Blanche announced the SPLC indictment. Among the accusations cited in the indictment: that the civil rights group set up bank accounts under code names to pay informants.
"SPLC paid members of these extremist groups," Blanche told reporters. "To that end, it was doing the exact opposite of what it told its donors it was doing, not dismantling extremism but funding it."
“Today is just the beginning,"Blanche said in a post on X, "stay tuned.”
The Justice Department did not respond to a USA TODAY request for comment on what Blanche meant by his remark, and on accusations the charges against SPLC are politically motivated.
What's next for the SPLC?
Legal experts and former officials are split largely along ideological lines on the merits of the SPLC prosecution.
“We are outraged by the false allegations levied against SPLC – an organization that for 55 years has stood as a beacon of hope fighting white supremacy and various forms of injustice to create a multi-racial democracy where we can all live and thrive," Fair, now the SPLC CEO, said in a statement. "Taking on violent hate and extremist groups is among the most dangerous work there is, and we believe it is also among the most important work we do. To be clear, this program saved lives.”
Jay Town, the former Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama − just north of the district that includes Birmingham − disagrees.
“Whether the SPLC needed to inform their donors of the payments to hate group leaders will be a question for the jury," Town told USA TODAY on April 23. "But the four false statements to banks charges appear from the indictment to be fairly insurmountable for the SPLC to overcome. In fact, more indictments may come from that scheme.”
Town also said the group could lose political support.
"I would think that the typical SPLC donor class is a little weary of giving any funds to SPLC, and I'm sure are quite surprised that millions of donated funds, according to the indictment, have gone to members of the groups which they were created to dismantle," Town said. "This really is sort of the equivalent of a Jewish charity raising money to stomp out antisemitism and then funding (anti-Israel) protests at Columbia University."
Julius Nam, a former Justice Department senior policy counsel and Civil Rights Section prosecutor, has charged numerous wire fraud cases and said the current charges don’t add up.
“Some may disagree with the means of using informants, but the goal of the payments to the informants, from all I know, is to help their (SPLC’s) cause of dismantling these groups and gaining crucial indictable information from these individuals to pass on to law enforcement,” said Nam, who said he worked closely with SPLC on hate-crime initiatives beforeleaving DOJ in October.
“That’s not mentioned at all” in the indictment, Nam said, “and that is, I believe, crucial information to determine what the actual goals were and whether they were actually fraudulent in their fundraising efforts.”
Whatever happens in the current case, some said, the federal government should continue to try and find ways to work with groups like SPLC, not try to criminalize their behavior.
"We don’t have the luxury of ignoring their information. In the case of SPLC, I have long respected their litigation efforts to bankrupt the KKK," Breinholt, the former DOJ counterterrorism lawyer, said. "It would be a shame if SPLC's existence was jeopardized by political considerations."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:SPLC fought Klan, neo-Nazis, now faces federal charges. What's next?