By S.A. McCarthy

One of the nation’s leading left-wing activist organizations, responsible for fostering and encouraging hostility towards Christians, has been officially indicted by a federal grand jury, in what conservatives are hailing as a significant step towards restoring accountability.

A grand jury in the Middle District of Alabama on Tuesday handed down an indictment charging the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) with six counts of wire fraud, four counts of bank fraud, and one count of money laundering. More than $3 million in SPLC funds were funneled to extremist organizations, including the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), Aryan Nations, and American Front, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche noted that the SPLC “purports to fight white supremacy and racial hatred” but was “not dismantling these groups. It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose.”

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said the indictment “is a welcome development, especially if it marks the beginning of the end” of the SPLC’s “long pattern of misrepresentation and harm.” In his statement released Tuesday, he continued, “For years, the SPLC has used its platform to label and target organizations with whom it disagrees, often blurring the line between legitimate concern and ideological attack. That kind of reckless characterization doesn’t just damage reputations, it has put lives at risk.”

The SPLC has frequently labeled Christian organizations, including FRC, as “hate groups,” placing them on a list alongside organizations such as the KKK and Aryan Nations. As of the time of writing, the SPLC still lists FRC, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the American College of Pediatricians, the American Family Association (AFA), the California Family Council, the Center for Christian Virtue, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), the Family Foundation of Virginia, the Family Research Institute, Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), Focus on the Family, Liberty Counsel, the Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine, “radical traditionalist Catholic” groups, and a host of churches and ministries on its “hate map,” alongside the Aryan Freedom Network, the National Socialist German Workers Party, the National Socialist Movement, the Order of the Black Sun, the publisher Third Reich Books, various chapters and derivations of the KKK, and other racialist or neo-Nazi extremist organizations.

In 2012, Virginia resident Floyd Lee Corkins II attacked FRC’s Washington, D.C. offices, armed with a handgun. He shot and injured building manager Leo Johnson, who still managed to disarm Corkins. When questioned by law enforcement officials, Corkins admitted that he had targeted FRC because it was listed as a “hate group” on the SPLC’s website.

Referring to the attack, Perkins said in his Tuesday statement, “We’ve talked with the FBI to help them understand how these designations have real-world consequences. That’s why this moment matters.” He continued, “Accountability should not stop with individual convictions. If wrongdoing is proven, justice should include restitution to those harmed. With over $750 million in their endowment which includes offshore accounts, the SPLC should be held responsible not only for what was done, but for the damage left behind.”

Prior to the DOJ announcing the indictment, the SPLC claimed in a press release that it was being unfairly targeted by President Donald Trump’s administration for paying “informants” in extremist organizations. FRC Senior Fellow for Regulatory Affairs Dr. Chris Gacek, on Tuesday night’s episode of “Washington Watch,” referred to the SPLC’s press release as “a lot of spin,” noting that the organization was clearly “trying to get out ahead of a story.” Gacek, who has been tracking the SPLC’s activities for over a decade, noted that the organization would frequently send operatives to be hired by conservative groups, in order to obtain inside information on the conservative groups, their activities, and even their personnel. He suggested that the SPLC’s “informants” may have been doing more than just providing information to the left-wing think tank.

“There could be a lot of layers here to what’s going on and the infiltration and who are the people,” Gacek said. He recalled an example of an SPLC employee who not only provided insider information to the SPLC, but “also pass[ed] it on to a shadowy leftist guy who gives it to Antifa so that they can carry out violent activity against the people that are being targeted and doxed.” He added, “I’m not going to give her name because I don’t know if she’s involved in this criminal case.” Gacek said that such activity, if proven, would put the SPLC “really close to the line here. You’re getting close to some conspiracy, close to real violent people who could be doing bad stuff.”

Both Perkins and Gacek noted that, under former President Joe Biden, the FBI worked closely with the SPLC, including relying on the SPLC to target “radical traditionalist Catholics” and infiltrate and spy on Catholic parishes. Trump’s DOJ also confirmed last week that the Biden administration collaborated with left-wing, pro-abortion organizations to unfairly target and prosecute pro-life Americans. Gacek suggested that the indictment against the SPLC could have stemmed from the Trump administration’s review of the Biden DOJ’s collaboration with the SPLC. “What’s fascinating here is that, a year and a half ago,” the SPLC was “sitting at the table with the FBI, dishing out dirt on conservative groups,” Perkins observed. “I mean, they were helping shape the policy of the FBI and the Department of Justice on conservative groups.”

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

This piece originally appeared here.