Some of the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) donors have apparently remained silent after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) charged the nonprofit this week with fraud and money laundering.
One of those big-name donors is actor George Clooney, whose foundation has not yet said a word about the indictment, the New York Post reported Thursday, noting that left-wing billionaire George Soros’ foundation and MGM Resorts have also stayed quiet.
The SPLC has been accused of funneling “more than $3 million to the hate groups it claims to fight,” the outlet said.
A federal grand jury in Alabama charged the nonprofit with 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering, per Breitbart News.
In a social media post on Tuesday announcing the indictment, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel wrote:
The SPLC allegedly engaged in a massive fraud operation to deceive their donors, enrich themselves, and hide their deceptive operations from the public. They lied to their donors, vowing to dismantle violent extremist groups, and actually turned around and paid the leaders of these very extremist groups – even utilizing the funds to have these groups facilitate the commission of state and federal crimes. That is illegal – and this is an ongoing investigation against all individuals involved.
In late 2025, Patel said the FBI had cut ties with the SPLC because it “long ago abandoned civil rights work and turned into a partisan smear machine” and had been targeting Americans, according to Breitbart News.
Indeed, the SPLC targeted the Moms for Liberty group and other parental rights groups by placing them on its “hate map.” It also took aim at Turning Point USA, whose founder, Charlie Kirk, was brutally assassinated during a speaking event in September, and conservative nonprofit PragerU.
The SPLC in 2017 acknowledged the Clooney Foundation for Justice and its $1 million grant to help “combat hate groups.” The post on its website read:
In the wake of the deadly violence at a white nationalist gathering in Charlottesville, Virginia, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is partnering with the Clooney Foundation for Justice to increase the capacity of the SPLC to combat hate groups in the United States.
…
“We are proud to support the Southern Poverty Law Center in its efforts to prevent violent extremism in the United States. What happened in Charlottesville, and what is happening in communities across our country, demands our collective engagement to stand up to hate,” said George and Amal Clooney.
Some of the SPLC’s donors, including Clooney’s foundation, presumably did not know the group was allegedly shifting money to a person involved in organizing the very Charlottesville rally Clooney mentioned, the Post article noted, citing the DOJ’s indictment.
More SPLC donors included former Apple CEO Tim Cook, JPMorgan, OpenAI, and Chick-Fil-A.
In a statement to the Post, Chick-Fil-A said, “Our mention in this is based on a one-time $2,500 donation made nearly 10 years ago at the request of a former advisory board member. This isn’t an organization that Chick-fil-A is involved with or supports in any capacity.”
Meanwhile, the former head of the SPLC has been accused of pushing the organization to become more partisan and weaponizing it against conservative and religious groups.
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