A federal judge denied a motion from the Montgomery-based Southern Poverty Law Center to dismiss criminal charges from the U.S. Department of Justice, while an ex-official has been charged as the criminal case moves forward. 

In April the Department of Justice charged the civil rights nonprofit with fraud, saying that the organization defrauded its donors by using funds to pay informants to infiltrate the hate groups it monitors. The indictment included 11 charges of wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, and the DOJ alleges that the SPLC used more than $3 million in donations to pay members of the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis.

At the news conference announcing the charges, acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche accused the SPLC of “manufacturing ​the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.”

The SPLC, meanwhile, maintained that paying informants was essential to monitoring the actions of hate groups and that the organization shared information it discovered through informants with the FBI and other law enforcement officials.

FBI director Kash Patel ended the FBI’s working relationship with the SPLC in October 2025, calling the group “a “partisan smear machine.” The move came shortly after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who led the student organization Turning Point USA — a group included on SPLC’s Hate Map. 

The SPLC sought to have the criminal charges dismissed, saying they were being unjustly targeted by the Trump administration. However, U.S. District Judge Emily Marks dismissed the nonprofit’s motion on Aug. 7 saying that they failed to provide sufficient evidence that they were being targeted by the administration.

“Though President Trump has specifically criticized the SPLC, the organization has not provided evidence that the prosecutors working on this case were in any way motivated by his purported animus,” Marks, a Trump-appointee, wrote in her order.

SPLC lawyers also said in court that the DOJ refused to turn over records showing that the SPLC shared tips from informants with law enforcement. 

In connection to the criminal case moving forward, ex-SPLC official Heidi Beirich was charged last week with wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to submit false statements to a federally insured bank and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. 

The indictment claims Beirich oversaw funneling donor money to members of hate groups. Prosecutors go on to allege that some of that money was used to buy Ku Klux Klan robes and materials to use in cross burnings.

Beirich led the SPLC’s Intelligence Project for eight years, until she left the organization in 2019. Beirich now runs the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism.

“This charge reflects a desperate government confronting a weak case, scrambling to make something — anything — stick as we approach trial,” Abbe Lowell, the lawyer representing the SPLC, said of the charges.

Alabama top stories in brief

Alabama special primary election sets stage for high-profile November election

• Special primary elections were held last week in four of Alabama’s congressional districts — Districts 1, 2, 6 and 7 — setting the stage for November’s general election.
• Special primaries were held in these districts after Alabama lawmakers redrew the congressional map in May to benefit Republicans. Districts 2 and 7 are currently represented by Democrats.
• Winners of last Tuesday’s election were:
  • Republican and former U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl in District 1, who will face Democrat Clyde Jones — who was running uncontested — in November.
  • Republican and former state Rep. Rhett Marques in District 2, who will face the incumbent Democrat U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures — who ran uncontested— in November.
  • Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer in District 6, who will face Democratic nominee Maurice Mercer, who won last week’s only contested Democratic primary, in November.
  • Republican Ammie Akin in District 7, who will face the incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell in November.
• Last week’s election saw extremely low voter turnout, with only 5.24% of registered voters going to the polls. The May primary election saw a voter turnout of 23%.

Alabama executes first death row inmate this year

• Alabama death row inmate Jeremy Williams was executed last week — the first death row execution Alabama has carried out this year.
• Williams was given the death sentence in 2024 for the rape and murder of five-year-old Kamarie Holland. Williams pled guilty to the crime.
• “I want to thank God for forgiving me for my sins so I can meet him in peace,” Williams said on the gurney before receiving lethal injection.
• Williams’s execution is the first Alabama has carried out this year, after a June execution was blocked when a federal judge ruled the state’s nitrogen gas execution method to be unconstitutional. 
• Alabama was one of three states that carried out a death row execution last Thursday, alongside Tennessee and Oklahoma, making it the first day since 2010 that three different states have performed executions on the same day.

Two Alabama sites announced in VA psychedelics trials

• The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced a clinical trial focused on testing the efficacy of psychedelic therapy for veterans, with two trial sites in Alabama.
• The Birmingham VA Health Care System and Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center will both be conducting trials, alongside three other VA sites across the country.
• The trials seek to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of psilocybin — a psychedelic compound found in some mushrooms — treatment for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder among veterans. These trials come after President Donald Trump signed an executive order in April calling for federal agencies to study medical uses for psychedelics. 
• “By participating in this trial, our facility is helping advance innovative research into new treatment options that may offer meaningful relief for Veterans, both here in central and northern Alabama and across the country,” Birmingham VA Executive Director and CEO Dr. Ladi Kukoyi told Alabama Political Reporter about the clinical trials.

Troy allegedly disciplined professor for writing to state lawmakers

• The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression is calling for Troy University to rescind disciplinary actions allegedly taken against a professor who wrote to state lawmakers.
• Troy math professor, Micah Swartz, wrote to Alabama lawmakers with concerns about the Alabama Numeracy Act Course Review Committee in which he said the committee’s proposed undergraduate syllabus “has not been manageable.”
• Swartz was allegedly disciplined by his department head after sending the letter using the university’s letterhead, saying that doing so “represented he was communicating in an official capacity on behalf of Troy University,” which Swartz was not authorized to do.
• Swartz was later disciplined for “unprofessional conduct” for sharing the letter with his students, according to FIRE.
• The free speech organization is now calling for Troy to rescind the two disciplinary actions against Swartz saying, “The right to petition government officials is one of the core expressive freedoms explicitly protected by the First Amendment. Academics don’t surrender that right just because they choose to work at a state school.”

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