Judge orders Justice Department to respond to SPLC motions over grand jury indictment
Updated
Updated · NBC News · Apr 28
Judge orders Justice Department to respond to SPLC motions over grand jury indictment
8 articles · Updated · NBC News · Apr 28
U.S. Magistrate Judge Kelly Fitzgerald Pate set a May 5 deadline for the DOJ to address the Southern Poverty Law Center's motions challenging an 11-count indictment in Alabama.
SPLC attorneys allege the prosecution is politically motivated, citing prejudicial statements by Trump officials and irregularities in grand jury proceedings, and demand disclosure of grand jury records and correction of public remarks.
The indictment accuses SPLC of wire fraud and money laundering related to paid informants; the organization maintains it provided valuable intelligence to law enforcement and calls the case unprecedented and politicized.
When does paying an informant become a federal crime for a civil rights group?
How can prosecutors prove a nonprofit manufactured hate instead of just monitoring it?
What makes these fraud charges against a nonprofit legally 'unprecedented'?
If no donors have complained, who is the actual victim in this fraud case?
Could anti-money laundering laws dismantle a group's intelligence-gathering work?
Can decades of 'unwritten' operational customs serve as a valid legal defense?