American Oversight Launches Investigation into Trump Admin’s Politicized Prosecution of Southern Poverty Law Center

Friday, American Oversight launched an investigation into the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) politically motivated prosecution of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), following whistleblower allegations that senior DOJ official Aakash Singh ordered prosecutors to “rush” the indictment despite concerns about the strength of the case. 

The allegations, detailed in a recent letter to Singh from Reps. Jamie Raskin and Mary Gay Scanlon, raise broader concerns about the DOJ’s escalating attacks on individuals, civil society organizations, protest movements, universities, media organizations, and other institutions seen as being at odds with President Donald Trump’s political agenda.

“This prosecution appears to be nothing more than a politically motivated effort to weaponize the Justice Department against an organization that has spent decades fighting hate, protecting civil rights, and holding extremists accountable,” said Chioma Chukwu, Executive Director of American Oversight. “The public deserves to know whether federal prosecutorial power is being abused to target organizations and individuals based on politics and ideology rather than facts and the law. That threat extends far beyond a single organization — it strikes at the core of civil society and the ability of people to speak out, organize, advocate, and dissent without fear of government retaliation.”

“For decades, the SPLC has exposed violent extremism, challenged white supremacist groups, and helped protect communities from hate and discrimination. Now, this administration is attempting to rewrite the history of who threatens our democracy and who defends it. That should alarm everyone, regardless of ideology,” Chukwu continued. “Speaking out against hate and defending civil rights is not a crime, and efforts to intimidate organizations engaged in that work will not silence the broader movement for justice and accountability.”

As part of our investigation, we filed a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with DOJ seeking records related to Associate Deputy Attorney General Singh’s role in the prosecution, including his communications with Acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama Kevin Davidson and outside parties using non-government email domains, as well as his calendars, ethics and recusal records, and onboarding documents.

The requests also seek records concerning Singh’s communications about the SPLC, the Ku Klux Klan, National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 — the Trump administration directive expanding federal scrutiny of alleged domestic extremism and related nonprofit activity — as well as phrases such as “manufacturing racism” and “partisan smear machine,” which the government has used to describe the SPLC and its activity. Our requests include records of Singh’s relevant communications conducted through encrypted or third-party messaging platforms and records from personal devices or non-official communications platforms used for government business, consistent with federal records preservation obligations.

Last week, we condemned the DOJ’s prosecution of the SPLC as “a dangerous escalation” and warned that the administration was “openly abusing federal power to attack a nonprofit organization engaged in civil rights work that is foundational to our democracy.”