Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall launched a investigation into the SPLC on Monday, alleging deceptive fundraising practices and issuing a subpoena demanding documents from the Montgomery-based organization by June 1.
The SPLC Alabama investigation targets the group under the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act and charitable organization statutes, both enforced by Marshall’s office.
The move comes three weeks after a federal grand jury in Montgomery indicted the SPLC on 11 counts including wire fraud, false statements, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
“My office has been fighting the SPLC for years, whether fighting them to protect minors from transgender medical procedures, fighting them to keep bad guys behind bars, or fighting them to preserve Alabama’s Republican congressional districts,” Marshall said. “We have always suspected that they were monetizing hate and trading on race-baiting. It was just a matter of proving it.”
Marshall said the federal indictments gave his office the opening it needed. “Thanks to the U.S. Justice Department’s action to deal with the SPLC, the state’s efforts have now received a shot in the arm,” he said. “We look forward to learning more about the inner workings of an organization that we have long believed was rotten, but until recently, has been impervious.”
The subpoena demands documents including records of annual donations from Alabama donors, disbursements of donated funds to informants, the percentage of the SPLC’s budget allocated to informant costs, and payments to groups or individuals appearing in the SPLC’s own extremist files or hate map.
The federal indictment alleges the SPLC secretly funneled more than $3 million between 2014 and 2023 to individuals associated with the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, and the National Socialist Party of America.
Prosecutors say the group used fictitious entities to hide the payments and never disclosed the informant program to donors. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the SPLC was “manufacturing racism to justify its existence.”
Marshall previously praised the federal indictments in an interview with “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins,” saying the Biden administration had buried the investigation before the Trump administration revived it. “With Trump’s administration, we found action,” Marshall said.
The SPLC has denied the federal allegations, saying its informant program saved lives and calling the DOJ’s case “false allegations.” The group has not yet publicly responded to Marshall’s state investigation.
Because the SPLC is headquartered in Montgomery, Marshall’s office said it is entitled to information regarding the organization’s dealings with donors and informants, including those outside Alabama.
Sawyer Knowles is a capitol reporter for Yellowhammer News. You may contact him at [email protected].
