The SPLC indictment, the Klan history behind it, and the ignominy of Todd Blanche

Another dark day for DOJ.

Chris Geidner
Apr 21, 2026



Forty-five years ago, a nonprofit organization’s program aimed at “placing sympathizers into Klan groups for the purpose of gathering information” was decried as “extremely dangerous to American freedom.“

On Tuesday, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced that a later iteration of that program was the source of an 11-count indictment secured by the Department of Justice against the Southern Poverty Law Center — which he accused of “paying sources to stoke racial hatred” within white supremacist organizations, including the Ku Klux Klan.

FBI Director Kash Patel, under whose direction the FBI cut ties with the SPLC last year, was at Blanche’s side on Tuesday.

Bryan Fair, the interim president and chief executive officer of SPLC, said in a video statement released before the indictment was out, “We are … unsurprised to be the latest organization targeted by this administration. They have made no secret of who they want to protect and who they want to destroy.”

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