On June 2, the Justice Department filed a superseding indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center, updating one it filed in April. This indictment didn’t add new charges or defendants. Instead, it was an attempt to correct legal errors pointed out by multiple analysts. Even a corrected indictment, though, isn’t enough to fix a deeply flawed prosecution.
Shortly after the original indictment, the SPLC filed an unusual motion “to address the government’s materially false statements and to enforce rules prohibiting further prejudicial extrajudicial statements.” Typically, it’s the government that charges a defendant with making false statements. Here, the defendant was lobbing that allegation at the government.
As it turned out, however, the SPLC was right, and Justice Department attorneys ended up conceding the matter, even if the motion technically failed.
Typically, it’s the government that charges a defendant with making false statements. Here, the defendant was lobbing that allegation at the government.
The indictment, brought in the Middle District of Alabama, charges SPLC with fraud in connection with the use of paid informants collecting information about white supremacist groups. Bryan Fair, the interim president and CEO of SPLC, made a public statement explaining, among other things, that SPLC shared the intelligence it collected with federal law enforcement. But the government said that wasn’t the case. “There’s no information that we have that suggests that the money they were paying to these informants and these members of these organizations, they then turned around and shared what they learned with law enforcement,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham shortly after the indictment was unsealed.
That false statement was at the heart of SPLC’s motion.
The SPLC alleged that Blanche knew he was wrong when he went on Fox News, and said that it had asked the government to “correct its false statement” before it filed the motion, but that didn’t happen. So it asked the court to force the government to correct the false statements and to enter an order specifically requiring it to refrain from any future repetition of them.
The government’s response had a deer-in-the-headlights feel. It didn’t deny that Blanche’s comments were false, but instead pointed out that Blanche had already walked them back — once again on national television: “On April 26, 2026, Acting Attorney General Blanche made the following statement on Fox News Sunday with Shannon Bream, ‘It is true that over the years they have selectively shared information with law enforcement. That’s well-documented and there’s no dispute there. They aren’t charged with any of that conduct.’” The government’s response continued with the concession that “to the extent that any clarification was needed, Acting Attorney General Blanche’s remarks on a major Sunday television program certainly suffice.”
Then the Justice Department humbled itself by promising the court there wouldn’t be a repetition: “Regarding Defendant’s second relief request, the United States of America has no intention of making any false or misleading statements in this case or any other case. It is well aware of its obligations under the law and applicable rules and will act accordingly.”
That should go without saying. But courts across the country have confirmed that this Justice Department has lost the presumption that it acts in accordance with the law. Prosecutors, who owe a duty of candor to the court, if not to the public, should not have to vouch for their own integrity. But again, this DOJ is garnering a stunning reputation for its absence of courtroom candor. Indeed, the department’s concession here highlights just how far over the line Blanche’s initial comments were.
Magistrate Judge Kelly Fitzgerald Pate denied the SPLC’s motion. But her written order is nonetheless a solid win for SPLC. She declined to require any relief because the DOJ had already corrected its error. But she didn’t stop there.
Joyce Vance
Joyce Vance is an MS NOW columnist and former U.S. attorney.