AUSTIN, Texas – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has launched an investigation into the Southern Poverty Law Center to determine if the organization violated state law by using donor funds to secretly pay violent extremist groups it publicly claimed to oppose.

The investigation follows a federal fraud indictment against the SPLC in April 2026. The U.S. Department of Justice under President Donald Trump alleges the Montgomery, Alabama-based organization defrauded its contributors by routing more than $3 million to individuals associated with the Ku Klux Klan and other extremist groups.

According to federal prosecutors, the SPLC used the millions raised from donors to secretly pay leaders of those organizations. While the SPLC has defended the payments by claiming they were intended to secure insider information, investigators suggested some of the funds were instead used by extremists to commit other crimes.

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State officials noted that donors were never informed that their financial contributions would be used to support individuals affiliated with the very groups the SPLC explicitly tracks and opposes.

“The radical, woke SPLC was funding the very groups it was claiming to oppose. My office will ensure that the organization is held accountable for its blatant deception,” Paxton said in a statement. “Donors of the SPLC deserve to know if they have been manipulated into supporting a non-profit that gives millions of dollars to the KKK and other groups that they thought they were opposing.”

As part of the inquiry into deceptive donor solicitations, the Texas Office of the Attorney General has issued a Civil Investigative Demand to the organization to examine potential violations of Texas law.

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The SPLC, which builds its platform on monitoring, labeling, and combating hate groups and extremist activity, faces intense scrutiny over the gap between its public mission and its financial operations.

“The charges against the SPLC are provably wrong; they are based on inaccurate facts and a misapplication of law,” said SPLC interim President and CEO Bryan Fair. “Our informant program was successful in accomplishing its purposes: Threats and attacks were prevented, criminal activity was stopped, and information was gathered to dismantle the efforts of hate and extremist groups. There is no question that the information the SPLC shared with law enforcement saved lives.”