SPLC Indicted for Funding Extremism – While Jocelyn Benson Sat on Their Board

Lansing, MI – Yesterday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that a Grand Jury has returned a serious indictment charging the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) related to their alleged funding of extremist groups they purported to work against. The SPLC is being charged with 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. 

The DOJ alleges that the SPLC used donor money to funnel more than $3 million to extremist groups between 2014 and 2023.

Notably, Michigan Secretary of State and Democrat frontrunner for governor, Jocelyn Benson, was appointed to the SPLC’s Board of Directors in 2014. Benson continued to serve on the board through early 2019 and was listed on the SPLC’s website as a board member during a part of her first term as Secretary of State.

During the time Benson was on the board, the SPLC is alleged to have funded groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, United Klans of America, National Socialist Movement, and reportedly paid someone who helped organize the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville more than $250,000.

“This indictment raises serious questions about how the SPLC has been spending donor money,” said Gabe Butzke, a spokesperson for Michigan Forward Network. “As a member of their board, did Jocelyn Benson know that donor money was reportedly being used to fund extremism and violence?”