Why was the Southern Poverty Law Center indicted on federal fraud charges?

Charges alleged the center paid informants to infiltrate extremist groups without disclosing payments to donors

The Southern Poverty Law Center was indicted on Tuesday on federal fraud charges, alleging it improperly paid informants to infiltrate extremist groups without disclosing the payments to donors, acting attorney general Todd Blanche said.

The center’s CEO Bryan Fair said the payments went to confidential informants in order to monitor threats of violence from the extremist groups – and that the information the center received was frequently shared with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.

The information gathered by the informants helped save lives, Fair said on Tuesday.