Judge won't shut down Trump Justice Department prosecution of Southern Poverty Law Center

The Justice Department can move forward with its criminal case against the Southern Poverty Law Center, the federal judge overseeing the case ruled, rejecting the SPLC’s claim that it is the victim of an illegal and vindictive prosecution.

Judge Emily Marks, a Trump appointee in Alabama, said the SPLC failed to prove that the prosecutors who brought the case had “animus” toward the famed civil rights group.

The SPLC had pointed to a flurry of statements from President Trump and other high-ranking Republicans criticizing the SPLC’s operations, and the timing of the investigation into the group, as evidence the administration was out to get it.

But Judge Marks said the there was no evidence of actual malice on the part of then-U.S. Attorney Kevin Davidson, whose office in Alabama brought the case.

“The court has little trouble concluding that the SPLC offers insufficient objective evidence that Mr. Davidson or any other prosecutor in the Middle District of Alabama was vindictively motivated to indict the SPLC for the exercise of its First Amendment rights. Nor does the SPLC provide evidence that Mr. Davidson was directed to bring the present charges by a superior with a vindictive motive,” the judge wrote.

The bombshell indictment accused the SPLC of wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to launder money. Prosecutors said the organization, which says it fights racism and hate, was secretly paying informants in the very groups such as the Ku Klux Klan it said it was targeting — and deceiving donors about it.

The SPLC also used fabricated identities for the bank accounts it used to make $4 million in payments, the indictment states.

The organization pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Founded in 1971, the SPLC gained its reputation fighting the KKK. In the years since, it has broadened its mission, attempting to serve as a broader referee for “hate.”

It has frequently named conservative groups as purveyors of hate, based on their views on marriage, gay rights or immigration — all of which have sparked clashes with conservatives.

The Biden Justice Department relied on SPLC designations to pursue action against some conservative causes. The Trump administration has gone the other way, moving to cut ties between government agencies and the SPLC.

That fueled the SPLC’s belief that it was the subject of vindictive prosecution.

Part of the group’s evidence was that the FBI had investigated the SPLC in the first Trump administration, put that on hold under President Biden, then reopened it in the new Trump term.

Judge Marks said a change in administrations routinely changes prosecution priorities, but that doesn’t automatically mean vindictiveness.

She pointed out that the indictment charges conduct up through 2023, which was after the first Trump term ended.