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.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.
