politics
DOJ Indicts Southern Poverty Law Center and James Comey in Separate Cases
The U.S. Department of Justice has indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center on charges of wire fraud and false statements, alleging it paid informants to stoke racial hatred. A separate indictment targets former FBI Director James Comey for threats based on a year-old Instagram post.
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U.S. Department of Justice announced indictments against the Southern Poverty Law Center and former FBI Director James Comey as part of a spate of new prosecutions under Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. A federal grand jury charged the Southern Poverty Law Center with wire fraud and false statements, alleging the organization sent funds to informants and used shell companies to disguise the source of the payments.
Blanche, standing next to FBI Director Kash Patel during the announcement, alleged that the Southern Poverty Law Center paid sources to stoke racial hatred, with two posters tallying funds spent on informants within extremist groups displayed at the event.
President Trump posted on Truth Social that if the Southern Poverty Law Center allegations are true, the 2020 Presidential Election should be permanently wiped from the books and be of no further force or effect. The Southern Poverty Law Center stated it used its informant program to gather information about the risk of violence at Charlottesville and shared that with the FBI and other law-enforcement agencies in advance of the Unite the Right rally in 2017.
The organization also passed along material from paid informants to the FBI in other instances, including one case involving a potential white-supremacist terrorist attack in Las Vegas. In a separate case, a federal grand jury indicted James Comey for threats to harm President Trump based on a year-old Instagram post of seashells arranged to spell out 86 47.
Comey shared the photo while on vacation one year ago and stated in 2025 that he had no idea 86 could be meant as a threat, apologized, and deleted the post.
