Michigan Secretary of State Benson Served on SPLC Board During Period of Alleged Payments to Informants
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democratic candidate for governor, served on the Southern Poverty Law Center's board from 2014 to 2019. This period overlapped with alleged payments by the organization to informants in groups it labeled extremist, according to a federal indictment.
Substrate placeholder — needs reviewThe Department of Justice announced on April 21, 2026, that a grand jury in Alabama indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) on 11 counts, including wire fraud, making false statements to financial institutions, and conspiracy to engage in money laundering. The indictment alleges that the SPLC paid informants in groups it deemed extremist, using donor funds without disclosure.
It states that some donated money funded leaders and organizers of groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation, and the National Alliance.
She is running for the Democratic nomination to succeed Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Benson also worked for the SPLC as an investigative reporter, where she infiltrated white supremacist groups. The alleged payments totaled $3 million between 2014 and 2023, overlapping with her board tenure.
A spokesman for Benson in the Michigan Secretary of State's office referred inquiries to her gubernatorial campaign, which did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The indictment alleges that one organizer of the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was a field source for the SPLC. In her 2025 memoir, The Purposeful Warrior, Benson stated that her work as an investigative reporter for the SPLC involved posing as a freelance journalist to infiltrate white supremacist groups.
She said this work thwarted plots and caused the collapse of one group.
“I developed a deep understanding of the ways that extremist rhetoric and ideology lead to actual violence directed at individuals, communities, and, sometimes, entire nations." — Jocelyn Benson in The Purposeful Warrior Benson further stated in the memoir that this experience prepared her for overseeing the 2020 presidential election, noting a direct link from violent rhetoric of leaders to hateful acts of followers.”
The SPLC has labeled various organizations as hate groups, including Parents Defending Education, Moms for Liberty, and Parental Rights in Education in 2023. In 2025, the SPLC placed Turning Point USA on its hate map, months before the group's founder, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated on September 10, 2025, at Utah Valley University.
The SPLC's hate map was cited by a shooter who targeted the Family Research Council in 2012 due to its social conservative positions. In March 2023, an SPLC attorney was charged with domestic terrorism related to a riot at an Atlanta law enforcement training center.
The SPLC blamed police and defended the staffer. The SPLC has stated that The Daily Caller published work by white nationalists, citing its affiliation with Jason Kessler, an organizer of Unite the Right. The Daily Caller terminated its contract with Kessler upon discovering his connection to the event.
Groups listed by the SPLC as hate groups or extremist often face blocks on receiving donations through workplace programs.
Transparency
The rewrite presents factual details of the indictment and Benson's involvement without slanted language, anonymous speculation, or misdirection.
Benson's SPLC role equipped her with expertise to combat extremism, and the payments may have been legitimate intelligence efforts to prevent violence.
Reported by a single outlet. This score reflects source tier and factual specificity — corroboration is limited with one source.
Sources framed at 45 → our rewrite 0. We stripped 45 points of framing the sources carried in.
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