Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced a new investigation into the Southern Poverty Law Center on Monday as a federal judge in Alabama moved forward with a criminal fraud case against the civil rights organization, setting a jury trial for October.
Paxton said his office has opened an investigation into the Alabama-based nonprofit group over allegations tied to its funding of “certain violent extremist groups that it claimed to oppose,” according to a press release from the attorney general’s office.
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The investigation comes weeks after federal prosecutors accused the SPLC of fraud involving payments to confidential informants embedded in extremist groups.
The organization pleaded not guilty to fraud charges May 7 after federal prosecutors accused the group of improperly using more than $3 million in donor funds to pay informants connected to organizations that included the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations affiliates, and individuals who helped organize the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Paxton said his investigation will examine whether the SPLC solicited donations from Texans under potentially misleading pretenses and whether representations about its activities complied with state law.
Paxton, a Republican who has frequently sparred with progressive advocacy organizations, framed the investigation as part of a broader effort to ensure charitable organizations are transparent with donors.
“The radical, woke SPLC was funding the very groups it was claiming to oppose,” he said. “Donors of the SPLC deserve to know if they have been manipulated into supporting a non-profit that gives millions of dollars to the KKK and other groups that they thought they were opposing.”
The SPLC had denied wrongdoing and previously called the allegations “provably wrong,” arguing that its informant program was designed to gather intelligence to prevent extremist violence and aid law enforcement.
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The nonprofit group, best known for tracking hate groups and litigating civil rights cases, has said federal authorities were aware of aspects of the program for years.
Meanwhile, a federal magistrate judge in Montgomery on Monday set an Oct. 5 jury trial in the criminal fraud case against the SPLC, according to a court scheduling order. The order schedules jury selection and trial to begin at 10 a.m. in federal court in Montgomery before U.S. District Judge Emily Marks.
