Attorney General Todd Blanche might be trying to appease Neo Nazis with a new attack on “bad break ups,” a new legal analysis contends.
Empty Wheel journalist Marcy Wheeler on Thursday penned a scathing critique of the Justice Department’s indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center as it accuses the DOJ of refusing to share information.
The indictment also arrived on the anniversary of Heather Heyer’s death on Aug. 12, when Neo Nazis charged into Charlottesville and attacked an anti-racism protest.
“This is a clear signal from an administration riddled with Nazi sympathizers that it now views the infiltration of Unite the Right as a harm to society,” wrote Wheeler, “and the claim that SPLC donors or its bank were duped is merely projection on behalf of the UTR extremists who were duped by SPLC’s informant.”
The Justice Department’s indictment accuses Heidi Beirich, a former top official at the Southern Poverty Law Center, of fraud.
The Washington Post described the charges as “an escalation of the Justice Department’s ongoing case against the storied civil rights organization.”
Beirich, a political extremism expert, stands accused of overseeing payments to an undercover informant with whom she had a romantic relationship.
According to the indictment, Beirich, diverted at least $140,000 to a joint bank account they shared.
Beirich’s attorney reportedly called the indictment an attempt by the Trump administration to “silence political opponents,” according to the Post.
“Violent extremists have not stopped or intimidated Dr. Beirich from her vital work during her time at the SPLC or in the six and a half years after she left the SPLC,” defense lawyer Michael Proctor said in a statement.
Wheeler on Thursday said she agreed — arguing the charges are nothing new.
“There are no new alleged overt acts in the indictment (and as such this indictment suffers from the same structural problems that the initial and first superseding indictments did — which is that is accuses SPLC of attempting to fool two entities, its donors and a bank — that weren’t fooled at all),” Wheeler wrote.
“And, to a significant extent, the charges against Beirich may be nothing more than Todd Blanche’s effort to criminalize bad break-ups to help the Nazis.”
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