Attorney for SPLC expecting a superseding indictment in fraud case

(CNN) — During the initial hearing in the Justice Department’s fraud case against the Southern Poverty Law Center, an attorney for the civil rights group said he believes a second indictment might be coming in the case.

The attorney, Abbe Lowell, told a federal judge in Alabama that a superseding indictment in the case could mean a trial date — currently expected to be in the fall — would need to be pushed back.

The SPLC has been charged with using fictious companies to secretly pay informants inside of extremist and racist groups over the span of a decade.

The group, however, says the informants passed along valuable information about the extremist groups that the Justice Department itself has relied on in certain cases.

Thursday’s hearing in Montgomery was the first in the case against the SPLC over a practice which, according to prosecutors, the civil rights group has been engaged in for 20 years.

SPLC CEO Bryan Fair pleaded not guilty to 11 charges, including wire fraud, making false statements to a federally insured bank and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

While the organization, founded in the early 1970s, has been known for its work investigating and tracking extremist groups, Republicans have accused the SPLC of unfairly labelling conservative organizations and individuals as extremists.

Following the murder of prominent right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk, that criticism was made anew, with Republicans noting the SPLC had described Kirk’s organization Turning Point USA in a report as “A Case Study of the Hard Right in 2024.”

It’s unclear what charges the SPLC could face in addition to the charges it already faces.

“The Southern Poverty Law Center will continue, as it has in the past, to stand as a beacon of hope on the right side of history,” Lowell said in a press conference following the initial hearing.

The-CNN-Wire
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