SPLC Donor Money Paid For Klan Hoods And ‘Cross-Burning’ Supplies

By Ireland Owens

The left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center reimbursed Ku Klux Klan members for money spent on cross-burnings and materials used to make Klan garments, the Department of Justice explained in a superseding indictment filed Tuesday.

The DOJ’s original indictment from April alleged that SPLC shelled out money to Ku Klux Klan leaders, leading neo-Nazis and an Aryan motorcycle gang. Tuesday’s indictment alleges that in or around 2010, two Klan members identified only as F-31 and F-32 “feared for their safety from other Klan members and reached out to SPLC for help to “get out of the movement.” (RELATED: Jocelyn Benson’s SPLC Board Tenure Overlapped With Payments To Extremists)

The two Klan members “attended extremist group rallies in multiple states” while using SPLC donors’ money, per the indictment.

“This led to F-31 rising from merely a group member to a leadership role within an extremist group,” according to the indictment. “In the new leadership role, F-31 actively recruited new members using donors’ money.”

F-32 similarly participated in recruiting new Klan members using SPLC donors’ money, the indictment alleges. An SPLC employee “knew that F-32 used donors’ money to purchase material to make Klu Klux Klan garments” for other members, according to the indictment.

F-31 and F-32 each were reimbursed by the SPLC using donor money to cover “all expenses they incurred for cross-burning events to include the wood and fuel used,” the indictment suggests.

The SPLC did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

“The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in an April 21 statement. “Using donor money to allegedly profit off Klansmen cannot go unchecked. This Department of Justice will hold the SPLC and every other fraudulent organization operating with the same deceptive playbook accountable. No entity is above the law.”

In 2025, the SPLC listed Turning Point USA (TPUSA) on its “hate map,” just a few months prior to when TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated during a Sept. 10, 2025, event at Utah Valley University.