Southern Poverty Law Center Demands Correction from Acting AG Todd Blanche Over False Claims

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is not taking Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s false statements lying down. In a court filing this week, SPLC attorneys demanded that Blanche publicly retract claims he made on Fox News denying the organization had ever shared informant information with law enforcement. According to the SPLC, those claims are flat-out wrong and undermine the government’s own evidence.

Blanche, who stepped into the role earlier this month replacing Pam Bondi, announced last week that a federal grand jury indicted the SPLC on charges including wire fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering. The indictment centers on the SPLC’s use of paid informants to infiltrate hate groups. But Blanche’s public denial that the SPLC cooperated with law enforcement contradicts the group’s documented history of sharing intelligence that helped secure an indictment against a member of a notorious extremist group.

SPLC attorneys point to a detailed April 6 meeting where they provided prosecutors with evidence of this cooperation. They also sent a letter to the Department of Justice outlining six categories of informant use that helped dismantle white supremacist organizations. This evidence directly undercuts the government's narrative that the SPLC’s informants boosted the very groups they were investigating.

The SPLC is now asking the judge overseeing the criminal case in Alabama to order the release of grand jury transcripts and to restrict the government from making further prejudicial statements that could taint the jury pool. They also want the court to require Blanche to issue a formal correction to his misleading public statements.

This clash exposes a troubling pattern of politicization and misinformation within the Justice Department under Blanche’s leadership. Instead of an impartial pursuit of justice, we see an effort to weaponize federal agencies and distort facts to target a civil rights organization known for fighting hate and extremism. The SPLC’s demand for accountability from Blanche is a crucial pushback against this dangerous abuse of power.