The spy network that took on America's Nazi groups
4/23/202644 min
In ‘The Secret War Against Hate,’ historian Steven J. Ross details the racist, anti-Semitic groups that sprung up after WWII, in the later half of the 20th century — and the spy network that worked to bring them to justice. He spoke with Terry Gross about that, and how it connects to the Dept. of Justice’s recent indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
This week on the NPR Politics Podcast, for decades, the Southern Poverty Law Center has tracked and even infiltrated hate groups. But the Justice Department now alleges the way they funded that work amounted to bank fraud. Is it an honest pursuit of justice, or just the latest example of the Trump DOJ targeting the president's political opponents? Listen this week to the NPR Politics Podcast.
Terry Gross· Host0:23
This is Fresh Air. I am Terry Gross. The Southern Poverty Law Center, the SPLC, a group known for monitoring and exposing white supremacist groups and individuals, was indicted by the Justice Department Tuesday on charges of money laundering, fraud, and false statements to banks. One of the SPLC's tactics, which was discontinued, was paying people to join hate groups undercover, monitor the hate group's activities from the inside, and when appropriate, reporting those activities to local and national law enforcement. The indictment accuses the SPLC of using donor money to amplify hate by sending in paid undercover monitors who had to participate in some of the group's racist activities, while the SPLC also paid people who were members and leaders of hate groups to become informers. It also says the organization failed to disclose to donors that this was how their money was being used. Many critics of the Trump administration say the indictment was politically motivated.