President Donald Trump's acting attorney general has come under scrutiny for allegations he lied on Fox News while discussing the administration's criminal case against the Southern Poverty Law Center — but his attorneys have reportedly offered up an excuse to a federal judge in Alabama.
As part of Blanche's Fox News interview on "The Ingraham Angle," he claimed that he didn't have any information to support that the SPLC shared the information it got from informants with law enforcement — a statement that SPLC told the court is contradicted by documentation they passed on to federal prosecutors.
Now, All Rise News' Adam Klasfeld reported on X, the DOJ is admitting Blanche lied — but they have a defense.
"Todd Blanche lied to Laura Ingraham that DOJ had no info suggesting that SPLC shared what they learned from informants with the FBI," wrote Klasfeld. "Prosecutors now suggest that's okay because he (sorta) corrected himself on a different Fox program five days later."
According to the filing Klasfeld flagged, DOJ prosecutors informed the judge, "On April 26, 2026, Acting Attorney General Blanche made the following statement on Fox News Sunday with Shannon Bream, 'It is true that over the years they have selectively shared information with law enforcement. That’s well-documented and there’s no dispute there. They aren’t charged with any of that conduct.' To the extent that any clarification was needed, Acting Attorney General Blanche’s remarks on a major Sunday television program certainly suffice."
The Southern Poverty Law Center combats and documents the activity of extremist groups — but has been a frequent target of right-wing fury over its hate group designations of entities, including the Family Research Council, which has extensive ties to the Republican Party.
The Trump administration's indictment alleges that SPLC was secretly funding the KKK and other hate terror groups under the guise of monitoring them.
SPLC maintains it was using paid informants in a legal, aboveboard manner to obtain information about extremist activity.