DOJ Clarifies Remarks on Southern Poverty Law Center Charges (1)

The Justice Department on Tuesday walked back a statement that it lacked knowledge of the Southern Poverty Law Center sharing information with law enforcement gathered from informants infiltrating extremist groups.

The update from the US attorney’s office for the Middle District of Alabama follows a motion from SPLC for DOJ to retract alleged “false statements” made by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in an April 21 Fox News interview. Blanche said at the time that “there’s no information that we have that suggests” SPLC, which faces charges of wire fraud and false statements to banks, took information from paid informants and “shared what they learned with law enforcement.”

DOJ said in a filing with the court Tuesday that Blanche provided clarification in an April 26 Fox News interview, saying, “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,” Blanche said in the interview, two days before SPLC filed its motion for the Alabama federal court to order the previous statement withdrawn.

“To the extent that any clarification was needed, Acting Attorney General Blanche’s remarks on a major Sunday television program certainly suffice,” DOJ said Tuesday. The filing was signed by Montgomery’s acting US Attorney Kevin Davidson.

The SPLC and its supporters have criticized the charges as an example of politicized weaponization of DOJ under President Donald Trump’s second term.

Magistrate Judge Kelly F. Pate had ordered DOJ to file by Tuesday a response to SPLC’s motion for the court to order that DOJ retract Blanche’s statement and “refrain from making any further false or misleading statements about the allegations in the indictment.”

DOJ noted in its filing Tuesday that it “has no intention of making any false or misleading statements in this case or any other case.”

“It is well aware of its obligations under the law and applicable rules and will act accordingly,” Davidson wrote.

Attorneys for SPLC didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Judicial Scrutiny

Blanche’s statements come as judges have criticized department attorneys for missteps and omissions in DOJ’s defense of its prosecutions and the administration’s hard-line immigration enforcement agenda.

A federal judge in Rhode Island said Tuesday that she would be referring an assistant US attorney there for disciplinary proceedings after he admitted to failing to disclose information about a detained migrant’s criminal history.

DOJ also filed Tuesday a response to SPLC’s motion to disclose the transcripts of grand jury proceedings that led to the 11-count indictment announced last month. SPLC’s request for insight on the typically-secretive process cited “substantial likelihood that the government carried gross misrepresentations of material issues into the grand jury proceeding.”

Davidson, however, said Tuesday that SPLC “has shown neither compelling nor particularized reasons to justify disclosure of grand jury materials.” The prosecutor also said SPLC’s request is “based on speculation and unsubstantiated allegations.”

Defense lawyers and former white-collar prosecutors have said the indictment’s omission of any intention SPLC had to influence a specific financial institution action could lead a judge to demand grand jury transcripts or dismiss the case altogether.

The case is USA v. Southern Poverty Law Center, Inc., M.D. Ala., No. 2:26-cr-00139, response 5/5/26.