Trump calls to permanently nullify 2020 presidential election if SPLC is found guilty of fraud linked to far-right groups

In a post Friday on Truth Social, President Trump has directly linked fraud allegations against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to the potential outright invalidation of the November 2020 election results.

Trump described the SPLC as "one of the greatest political scams in American History." and linked it to other cases that he said are part of a broader Democratic cheating scheme that includes ActBlue. "If it is true, the 2020 Presidential Election should be permanently wiped from the books and be of no further force or effect!" he posted.

Nearly a decade of hidden payments and extremist beneficiaries

This all stems from a formal indictment filed this week by the Justice Department (DOJ) against the SPLC, an organization based in Alabama known for allegedly monitoring and combating white supremacist and extremist groups.

According to the indictment, between 2014 and 2023, the SPLC secretly diverted more than $3 million in donations to individuals linked to various violent extremist groups. These included the Ku Klux Klan, United Klans of America, Unite the Right, National Alliance, the National Socialist Movement, the Sadistic Souls motorcycle club affiliated with Aryan Nations, the National Socialist Party of America (American Nazi Party) and American Front.

According to The New York Post, examples mentioned include the case of one of the leaders of the 2017 "Unite the Right" protest in Charlottesville, Va., which received more than $270,000 over eight years. That person was not identified in the indictment.

The indictment alleges that these payments were concealed from donors, who believed their money was used exclusively to "dismantle" hate groups, when in fact it was funding individuals linked to those same organizations.

Back-and-forth accusations and FBI rift with SPLC

The indictment includes charges of wire fraud, falsified statements to a federally insured bank and conspiracy to commit money laundering by concealment.

"The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence," said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. "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."

The SPLC has defended its actions as legitimate use of "paid confidential informants to gather credible intelligence on extremely violent groups," and said the investigation is political persecution.

In October, FBI Director Kash Patel announced that the agency was severing its ties with the SPLC for good. In a post on X, Patel accused the organization of having strayed from its original mission: "The Southern Poverty Law Center long ago abandoned civil rights work and turned into a partisan smear machine," he wrote.