Southern Poverty Law Center Seeks Dismissal of Federal Fraud Indictment

The motion cites a series of public statements by the president and other top administration officials targeting the center, including one in which Mr. " Lawyers for the SPLC wrote that the case meets "the very definition of a vindictive prosecution" and asked the court to dismiss the indictment as a violation of due process.

The Justice Department secured the 11-count indictment in April, charging the civil rights nonprofit with wire fraud and bank fraud. The indictment alleges that the group lied to donors about paying confidential informants to infiltrate hate groups and deceived banks about the bank accounts used to make those payments.

The SPLC has pleaded not guilty and vowed to fight the charges.

The motion notes that FBI and IRS investigators probed the organization and interviewed several people between 2019 and 2020 but never sought criminal charges. After the group became a frequent target of administration statements, the case was reopened, the filing states.

Prosecutors did not seek new documents or interview current employees in the weeks before informing the group of the indictment. " It references a directive last year from then-Attorney General Pam Bondi instructing the FBI to investigate groups suspected of funding domestic terrorism, as well as public statements by other administration officials criticizing the organization.

It is generally difficult to prevail in getting charges dismissed on the grounds of vindictive prosecution. Such requests have become increasingly common amid concerns among current and former Justice Department officials about cases being driven by political retribution.

Last week, a federal judge dismissed smuggling charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia after finding the prosecution vindictive. Numerous former federal prosecutors have publicly stated that the indictment against the SPLC appears weak and has a likely chance of being dismissed due to legal defects with how the case is charged.