Alabama federal prosecutors on Wednesday unveiled charges against Heidi Beirich, a prominent critic of violent far-right extremist groups like the KKK, Proud Boys, and others.
Per an indictment returned on Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Montgomery, Beirich faces a charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, a charge of conspiracy to submit false statements to a federally insured bank, and a charge of conspiracy to commit concealment of money laundering.
Beirich formerly worked as Chief Financial Officer at the Southern Poverty Law Center, and ran the group’s Intelligence Project. She’s long been an outspoken critic and investigator of the far-right. At the SPLC, she helped uncover the inner workings of hate groups across the country; since then, she’s run the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, tracking hate groups in the U.S. and around the world.
Prosecutors cast Beirich as a participant in what they’ve deemed a con run by the SPLC: using money from donors, unbeknownst to them, to pay informants involved in hate groups in exchange for information. The SPLC would then use the information to induce donors to provide more money, prosecutors alleged.
Per the indictment, Beirich oversaw what the government described as “secret payments” in exchange for information from within hate groups.
Michael J. Proctor, Beirich’s attorney, told TPM that her client appeared in federal court on Wednesday for an initial appearance on the charges.
“Dr. Beirich is innocent, and this case is without merit,” he said in a statement. “We believe the charges against her and the SPLC are politically motivated, and Dr. Beirich has been targeted in this case because of the important work she has done to combat hate groups and extremists.”
Proctor added in the statement that Beirich left the SPLC six-and-a-half years ago.
Under Trump II, the longstanding barrier between the DOJ and the White House has been demolished. Prosecutors have investigated and brought cases against high-profile political opponents of Trump’s and against protesters, frequently losing in court while dealing huge damage to defendants. The DOJ has also launched Joint Task Force Vanguard, TPM first reported, to pursue cases against political opponents under the guise of domestic terrorism. The group’s co-leader, Brian W. Lynch, marched on the Capitol on January 6, TPM exclusively reported.
There’s no indication that the SPLC case is a Vanguard prosecution. The Trump DOJ charged the SPLC in April with wire fraud, false statements, conspiracy to conceal money laundering, and more, alleging that the group, through its informant program, had worked to keep hate groups alive in order to justify further contributions to itself.
The SPLC has pushed back, in part, by noting that the FBI and other law enforcement organizations have relied on information it collected for years. That cooperation was the focus of criticism from Republican lawmakers, who have claimed that the SPLC’s work is biased and its hate watch lists unreliable. Some Republicans have pushed the FBI and others, for years, to stop using information the group provided.
In the indictment, prosecutors accused Beirich of carrying on a romantic relationship with someone only described as “F-9.” That person allegedly broke into the HQ of a hate group, stole documents for Beirich to copy, and then broke into the HQ again to return the records. The SPLC’s “Hatewatch” then published a story based on the documents, the indictment says, before Beirich allegedly paid another informant $6,000 to take responsibility for taking the records, prosecutors alleged.
Prosecutors accused Beirich and “F-9” of sharing two bank accounts, into which the SPLC transferred $140,000. That was out of around $1 million provided to “F-9” since 2007, prosecutors claimed, for activities that included infiltrating a Neo-Nazi group. Prosecutors accused Beirich of spending money deposited into the joint accounts on “personal living expenses.”
