The Southern Poverty Law Center filed two briefs in federal court on April 21, alleging that the Department of Justice lied when it charged the civil rights organization with multiple felony crimes related to its use of undercover informants who reported on the inner workings of right-wing extremist groups.
The Justice Department on April 21 , a 23-year-old extremist associated with the white supremacist Atomwaffen Division, for plotting terrorist attacks on a Las Vegas synagogue and a gay bar after receiving intelligence from SPLC, one brief states. Climo pleaded guilty to a weapons charge related to his possession of components that could be turned into a bomb in 2020.
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A second conviction arose from intelligence passed to the FBI by SPLC in 2019 when Fred Arena, a New Jersey resident who worked as a contractor at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, pleaded guilty to lying to the federal government about his involvement with the white supremacist group Vanguard America when applying for a national security clearance and for lying to investigators when asked about this. Arena had attended the Unite the Rally in Charlottesville as a member of Vanguard America.
The Justice Department’s and its officials’ alleged lies about the SPLC’s activities are “misconduct” that could poison the jury pool and prevent the nonprofit from receiving a fair trial, the group’s brief argues.
At a minimum, the SPLC asked the court to require prosecutors and Justice Department officials to stop issuing false statements about the organization’s information sharing with law enforcement and to require the disclosure of the “prosecutor’s introductory remarks and legal instructions to the jury” that returned the indictment.
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