{"id":9207,"date":"2026-04-21T11:02:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T16:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/21\/southern-poverty-law-center-says-it-faces-us-doj-criminal-probe\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T11:02:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T16:02:35","slug":"southern-poverty-law-center-says-it-faces-us-doj-criminal-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/21\/southern-poverty-law-center-says-it-faces-us-doj-criminal-probe\/","title":{"rendered":"Southern Poverty Law Center says it faces US DOJ criminal probe"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SPLC-4-1024x683-1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"A sign marking the Southern Poverty Law Center outside the organization's headquarters in Montgomery, Alabama on February 8, 2023. (Brian Lyman\/Alabama Reflector)\" \/><figcaption>\n<p>The headquarters of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama on February 8, 2023. The interim CEO of the civil rights organization said Tuesday that the SPLC faces a federal criminal probe over what the SPLC believes is its prior use of paid informants to gather intelligence on extremist groups.  (Brian Lyman\/Alabama Reflector)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Southern Poverty Law Center is the target of a federal investigation, potentially over the use of paid informants to gather intelligence on extremist groups, the organization said in a statement Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Bryan Fair, the interim CEO of the Montgomery-based civil rights organization, said he does not know all the details of the investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice but believes it\u2019s tied to efforts to gain information about the Ku Klux Klan and other organizations with the potential for violence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor decades, we engaged in unprecedented litigation to dismantle the Klan and other\u00a0hate\u00a0groups,\u201d Fair said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.splcenter.org\/beacon-hope-55-years\/\" target=\"_blank\">video statement<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cIn light of\u00a0that work, we\u00a0sought\u00a0to\u00a0protect the safety of our staff and the public. We\u00a0frequently\u00a0shared what we learned from\u00a0informants\u00a0with\u00a0local and federal law enforcement, including the FBI.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A message seeking comment was left with the DOJ on Tuesday. Fair said SPLC no longer uses paid informants but did not say when those efforts stopped.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for the organization said Tuesday that the program \u201cpredates me and a lot of people here. Most people who were involved are not even with the organization, because it has been a very long time since it has ended.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fair accused President Donald Trump and the DOJ of targeting SPLC for political purposes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday, the federal government has been\u00a0weaponized\u00a0to dismantle the rights\u00a0of\u00a0our nation\u2019s most vulnerable\u00a0people\u00a0and any organization like ours that\u00a0stands\u00a0in\u00a0the breach,\u201d Fair said. \u201cWe stood in the vanguard then, and we\u00a0stand\u00a0in the vanguard today. We will not be intimidated into silence or contrition, and we will not abandon our mission or the communities we serve.<\/p>\n<p>The SPLC, founded in 1971, rose to prominence by bringing lawsuits against the Klan and other organizations that forced them to declare bankruptcy. Members of the Klan bombed the organization\u2019s headquarters in Montgomery, Alabama, in July 1983. The group has also done work on voting rights, immigration and labor issues.<\/p>\n<p>The group has often been outspoken and critical of Trump, and Republicans and conservatives have made it a target for years, saying it lumps right-wing groups in with extremist organizations. The Republican-controlled House Judiciary Committee <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/event\/119th-congress\/house-event\/118758\/text\" target=\"_blank\">held a hearing on the SPLC<\/a> in December.<\/p>\n<p><i>This is a breaking news story and will be updated.<\/i><\/p>\n<div class=\"snrPubNote\">\n<p>This story was originally produced by <a href=\"https:\/\/alabamareflector.com\/2026\/04\/21\/southern-poverty-law-center-says-it-faces-u-s-doj-criminal-probe\/\" target=\"_blank\">Alabama Reflector<\/a>, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Missouri Independent, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The headquarters of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama on February 8, 2023. The interim CEO of the civil rights organization said Tuesday that the SPLC faces a federal criminal probe over what the SPLC believes is its prior use of paid informants to gather intelligence on extremist groups. (Brian Lyman\/Alabama Reflector) The&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Southern Poverty Law Center says it faces US DOJ criminal probe - WestplexNews.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/21\/southern-poverty-law-center-says-it-faces-us-doj-criminal-probe\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Southern Poverty Law Center says it faces US DOJ criminal probe - WestplexNews.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The headquarters of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama on February 8, 2023. The interim CEO of the civil rights organization said Tuesday that the SPLC faces a federal criminal probe over what the SPLC believes is its prior use of paid informants to gather intelligence on extremist groups. (Brian Lyman\/Alabama Reflector) The...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/21\/southern-poverty-law-center-says-it-faces-us-doj-criminal-probe\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"WestplexNews.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-21T16:02:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SPLC-4-1024x683-1.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brad Hildebrand\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brad Hildebrand\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/21\/southern-poverty-law-center-says-it-faces-us-doj-criminal-probe\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/21\/southern-poverty-law-center-says-it-faces-us-doj-criminal-probe\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Brad Hildebrand\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/86ac6e2a917ca881b22f6d55d1b955f0\"},\"headline\":\"Southern Poverty Law Center says it faces US DOJ criminal probe\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-21T16:02:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/21\/southern-poverty-law-center-says-it-faces-us-doj-criminal-probe\/\"},\"wordCount\":488,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/21\/southern-poverty-law-center-says-it-faces-us-doj-criminal-probe\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SPLC-4-1024x683-1-UGwrTg.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/21\/southern-poverty-law-center-says-it-faces-us-doj-criminal-probe\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/21\/southern-poverty-law-center-says-it-faces-us-doj-criminal-probe\/\",\"name\":\"Southern Poverty Law Center says it faces US DOJ criminal probe - 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