politics
Magistrate Judge Denies SPLC Motion as Moot in Federal Fraud Case
Magistrate Judge Kelly Pate ruled on May 6 2026 that the government is not lying about the Southern Poverty Law Center and there is no evidence it intends to, denying the organization's request for a court order. The SPLC, charged with making false statements to banks and wire transfers in the names of nonexistent companies, hired Hunter Biden’s lawyer Abbe Lowell.
May 11, 7:26 AM·2m read1 source
The FederalistAudio version
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Magistrate Judge Kelly Pate denied the Southern Poverty Law Center's motion as moot on May 6 2026, one day after the government filed its response. Pate ruled that the government isn’t lying and there’s no evidence that they intend to lie so there’s no need to order them not to.
The SPLC had sought the order after filing a 27-page brief on April 28 2026 demanding that courts protect their client against the DOJ’s alleged public lies.
The brief included a table of contents and table of authorities that took up five pages, and the SPLC posted its 27-page brief on its website. SPLC lawyers claimed in the filing that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has falsely claimed that the SPLC never told law enforcement about things learned from its informant program when they actually did.
The lawyers demanded that federal officials be ordered to stop lying in media appearances about their client and asked the court to order the immediate release of grand jury testimony.
U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Alabama to reply to the SPLC’s motion by May 5.
The DOJ response to the SPLC motion was four pages long with headers signatures and proof of service amounting to a single page of text. The DOJ argued that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche did not say what the SPLC claimed and that it doesn’t have anything to do with the charges.
The Federalist reported that the existing charges might be the tip of the iceberg with more charges and defendants expected.
