During a Tuesday episode of Mobile radio's FM Talk 106.5's "The Jeff Poor Show," Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall unpacked the State's newly launched civil investigation into the Southern Poverty Law Center's (SPLC) alleged deceptive fundraising practices.
According to Marshall, the investigation will determine whether the SPLC's activity within the state ran afoul of the State's Deceptive Trade Practices Act or state laws related to charitable organizations, both of which are enforced by the Attorney General's Office.
The state's investigation follows a Montgomery federal grand jury's indictment of the organization on charges of wire fraud, false statements and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
"This is a continuation of the work that we've done with federal partners," Marshall said. "The Attorney General has consumer protection responsibilities and also has an overlay of oversight on charitable organizations. Along with what my colleague from the state of Florida is likewise interested in, we've issued civil subpoenas to the SPLC, asking for very specific information about paid informants. Who they were connected to, what was the purpose of those dollars, and how that translated into the effort of the SPLC to raise money off of groups that otherwise they were funding."
He continued, "We look forward to being able to see those records and continuing that investigation and seeing where it takes us."
He explained the difference between Alabama's current path on the issue versus the federal government's criminal indictment.
"Federal is a criminal indictment against the organization itself," Marshall outlined. "We have no similar sort of authority in Alabama to do that. This is using the civil remedies that are available to us, similar to, for example, what we use against roadblocks most recently, or the bigger case on our pharmaceutical companies in the opioid crisis."
He added, "We have fraud protections that we can use, and that is the ability for us to be able to investigate whether or not a violation of laws is taking place."
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