All posts tagged "Southern Poverty Law Center"

A furious congressional lawmaker slammed a prosecution by the Trump administration as racist and "an effort to criminalize dissent" during a hearing on Wednesday.

Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) described the Department of Justice's criminal case against the Southern Poverty Law Center as being all "about white nationalism and a direct attack on Black Americans in this country, and it comes from the very top."

She was speaking at the U.S. House Judiciary Committee hearing on the SPLC, where the group had to testify in front of lawmakers and defend itself against accusations of secretly paying members of hate groups it monitors....

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) lit into Republican witnesses at a House Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, erupting in frustration after struggling to get three GOP-invited witnesses to acknowledge that the Proud Boys and Neo-Nazis are white supremacist organizations.

The fireworks came during a hearing Republicans titled "The Southern Poverty Law Center: Manufacturing Hate," a session convened by Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) in the wake of a federal indictment against the civil rights organization.

Crockett opened her questioning by asking the full panel point-blank whether the Proud Boys were a white supremacist organization. Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said he wasn't "on their mailing list." Tyler O'Neil of The Daily Signal flatly said no. Dr. Carol Swain said she hadn't "read a description" of how they define themselves....

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) was frustrated during a live CNN broadcast on Tuesday after he was questioned about a MAGA political operation after a prominent nonprofit pushed back on an indictment from the Trump administration.

Jordan was speaking with CNN anchor Phil Mattingly when the conversation got heated over mention that Moms for Liberty was considered to have ties with groups designated as hate or extremist by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has been accused by President Donald Trump's Department of Justice's of wire and bank fraud. In a court filing on Tuesday, SPLC said that the FBI was aware that the organization had utilized their source information.

"Come on, Phil," Jordan said. "They're running a $3 million scam, right? They were they were telling their donors, oh, 'These hate groups are so terrible. Send us a bunch of money.' Meanwhile, they were paying people in the hate groups to foment the hate. $3 million over an eight year, 8 or 9 year period of time. It's like, that's unbelievable." ...

The Department of Justice hurt its own case against the Southern Poverty Law Center with a poor choice of words, with a legal expert calling the indictment "particularly weak" on its face.

"What makes this all highly problematic is an apparent gaffe in the charging language," legal expert Andrew Weissmann wrote in a Saturday piece for Just Security.

Weissman pointed out that the indictment carelessly alleged the SPLC made "misleading" statements to defraud banks and set up accounts to fund racist groups like the KKK. The lack of specifics and relying on accusations of misleading statements "is insufficient to prove guilt," according to Weissman. ...

The Neo-fascist hate group Patriot Front is being slammed for "inserting itself" into disaster relief efforts in Texas, according to The Guardian.

Leader Thomas Rousseau, a Texas native, announced in a video message on Telegram that his "activists" were “responding to the flooding, which has destroyed communities and taken the lives of scores of Americans."

Rousseau added that his group "is prioritizing their 'people' and 'European peoples' in those operations," the report said....

Since last year, the neo-Nazi group 2119 has committed acts of violence targeting Jews, Black people, LGBTQ+ people and other perceived enemies.

I began reporting on 2119 in an effort to expose its actions. As I investigated the group’s leadership and activities, and publication of a two-part project neared, neo-Nazi threats against me escalated. Online harassment led to phone calls and doxxing, which devolved into death threats and, most recently, visits to my home.

My ordeal began in November, when 2119 called me out by name in profane Telegram posts laden with racism, antisemitism and homophobia....