BACKGROUND: The Groups SPLC Has Investigated and Exposed, Including Trump’s Own Allies
Republicans attacking the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), including Rep. Jim Jordan, whose Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing to do just that this week, must answer for targeting an organization that has spent decades bankrupting the KKK and exposing white nationalist and anti-government extremist groups — some of them the very groups that have shown up at Trump’s rallies, stormed the Capitol on January 6, and sat at his dinner table at Mar-a-Lago.
The DOJ’s indictment of the SPLC is not about “donor fraud.” It is about silencing the most effective legal and research organization working to document and hold accountable Trump’s allies on the far right. The following groups have been investigated, designated, or exposed by the SPLC and are now being de facto defended by Trump and Republicans.
Groups SPLC Has Taken to Court
SPLC Sued the United Klans of America Into Bankruptcy After the 1981 Lynching of Michael Donald. In one of the most consequential civil rights lawsuits in American history, SPLC won a $7 million verdict against the United Klans of America on behalf of Beulah Mae Donald, whose teenage son was abducted and lynched by two Klansmen in Mobile, Alabama. The judgment bankrupted the group and forced it to hand over its Tuscaloosa headquarters. The case became a model for using civil litigation to dismantle hate groups.
SPLC Destroyed the Aryan Nations Through a $6.3 Million Civil Judgment. After Aryan Nations security guards carried out a 1998 armed attack on Victoria and Jason Keenan, SPLC represented the Keenans and won a $6.3 million judgment against the group, its leader Richard Butler, and former members. The verdict forced Butler into bankruptcy and resulted in the transfer of the group’s 20-acre Idaho compound to the plaintiffs. The Aryan Nations never recovered.
SPLC’s Lawsuit Against the Christian Knights of the KKK for Burning a Black Church Resulted in a $37.8 Million Judgment — the Largest Ever Against a Hate Group at the Time. In 1998, a South Carolina jury awarded $37.8 million (later reduced to $21.5 million) after the Christian Knights conspired to burn Macedonia Baptist Church, a historic African American congregation. The judgment was the largest ever assessed against a hate group.
SPLC Won a $14 Million Judgment Against Daily Stormer Founder Andrew Anglin. In 2017, SPLC filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Tanya Gersh, a Jewish real estate agent in Whitefish, Montana, whom Anglin targeted after a dispute involving white nationalist Richard Spencer’s mother. Anglin published 30 articles directing his followers to flood Gersh and her 12-year-old son with more than 700 anti-Semitic threats and messages. In August 2019, a federal judge awarded Gersh $14 million in damages. Anglin, however, had already fled the country and has refused to pay or respond to collection efforts.
The SPLC Took Down the White Aryan Resistance. In November 1988, three White Aryan Resistance-affiliated skinheads murdered an Ethiopian college student named Mulugeta Seraw in Portland, Oregon. The SPLC successfully sued White Aryan Resistance leader Tom Metzger and his son a year later, leading to a $12.5 million award to the student’s family that bankrupted the Metzgers and effectively dissolved the White Aryan Resistance.
The SPLC Successfully Sued A Neo-Nazi Group Into Disbanding After A Member Murdered A Black Florida Veteran. In May 1996, the SPLC successfully won a $1 million civil judgment against William Luther Pierce, the leader of the neo-Nazi Church of the Creator. A member of the Church murdered Harold Mansfield, a Black U.S. Navy veteran, in Florida in May 1991. Years later, the SPLC won an additional $85,000 judgement against Pierce when the Church attempted to dodge payment of the settlement by disbanding and fraudulently transferring its assets.
Trump-Allied Groups SPLC Has Designated and Investigated
SPLC has exposed and investigated groups with close ties to Donald Trump:
SPLC Designated the Proud Boys, Who Trump Told To “Stand Back and Stand By,” a Hate Group. SPLC has designated the Proud Boys as a hate group, describing the organization as an “alt-right fight club” that uses rhetorical cover to obscure its white nationalist and violent agenda. At the first 2020 presidential debate, when asked to condemn white supremacists, Trump instead told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” — a moment the group celebrated publicly, with members tweeting “Standing by, sir.” Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio was convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in organizing the January 6 attack on the Capitol and had his sentence commuted by Trump upon taking office.
SPLC Tracked and Exposed the Oath Keepers, Whose Founder Was Convicted of Seditious Conspiracy for Organizing January 6. SPLC has long identified the Oath Keepers as an anti-government extremist organization. Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes was convicted of seditious conspiracy in November 2022 for his role in organizing the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Trump commuted his sentence upon taking office. SPLC senior research analyst Cassie Miller provided information about the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys to the House January 6 Select Committee, including their connections to Trump allies Roger Stone and Michael Flynn.
SPLC Designated Nick Fuentes’ America First Organization as a Hate Group — the Same Nick Fuentes Who Dined With Trump at Mar-a-Lago. SPLC formally listed Nick Fuentes’ America First Foundation as a hate group in 2021, describing Fuentes as a white nationalist who admires fascists and seeks to push the Republican Party to the extreme far right. In November 2022, Trump hosted Fuentes for dinner at Mar-a-Lago. Despite widespread criticism, Trump initially claimed he “knew nothing” about Fuentes, even as Fuentes had been publicly and extensively documented by SPLC and other groups for years.
SPLC Has Tracked Patriot Front, the White Nationalist Group Whose Members Marched in Pro-Trump Rallies. SPLC designates Patriot Front as a white nationalist hate group, tracking the organization’s nationwide propaganda campaigns, marches, and recruitment. Members have appeared at pro-Trump events and Stop the Steal rallies.
SPLC Has Tracked the Three Percenters, Who Coordinated With the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers in the Run-Up to January 6. SPLC monitors the Three Percenters as part of the antigovernment militia movement. Three Percenter members were active as part of the attack on the Capitol on January 6, and Trump has pardoned Three Percenters both as part of his broad January 6 amnesty, and on additional gun charges.
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