2026年5月26日 / 美国东部时间下午5:12 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
华盛顿——南方贫困法律中心周二请求联邦法官驳回美国司法部对其提起的刑事指控，称该起诉书是特朗普总统为打击政敌的“自上而下的报复性行动。
这份提交给阿拉巴马州中区美国地方法院的47页文件，列举了总统及其他高级政府官员针对该中心的一系列公开表态，其中特朗普称该中心是“美国历史上最重大的政治骗局之一”。
“这完全符合报复性起诉的定义，”南方贫困法律中心的律师写道。“法院应驳回这份违反正当程序的起诉书。”
美国司法部于4月获得一份11项罪名的起诉书，指控这家民权非营利组织犯有电信欺诈和银行欺诈罪。起诉书指控，这个以反对三K党工作闻名的组织，向捐赠者谎称支付线人渗透仇恨团体，并向银行隐瞒用于支付这些款项的银行账户信息。
南方贫困法律中心已对指控提出无罪抗辩，并誓言将抗争到底。
以报复性起诉为由要求驳回指控通常很难成功，但在现任和前任司法部官员越来越担忧案件受政治报复驱动的背景下，此类请求已愈发常见。
就在上周，一名联邦法官驳回了对基尔马尔·阿布雷戈·加西亚的走私指控。这名出生于萨尔瓦多的马里兰州居民去年被特朗普政府错误驱逐。法官认定司法部的起诉具有报复性。
众多前联邦检察官已公开表态反对针对南方贫困法律中心的起诉书，称其看似薄弱，且因起诉方式存在多种法律缺陷，很可能被驳回。
在该中心周二提交的驳回指控动议中，其律师指出，联邦调查局和美国国税局的调查人员曾在2019年至2020年间对该组织进行了调查并约谈了数人，但从未寻求提起刑事指控。
“无论最初的调查无论起因和重点如何，最终都未提起任何指控，”他们写道。
南方贫困法律中心的律师指出，在该组织成为特朗普政府口头攻击的高频目标后，此案被重新启动。文件称，在检方告知该组织他们正寻求起诉的数周乃至数月前，检方并未要求提供新文件或约谈任何现任员工。
“从特朗普第二届政府就职伊始，将南方贫困法律中心这类组织就成为了优先打击目标，”该中心律师写道。
进步派非营利组织一直是特朗普政府的频繁攻击目标。
去年，时任司法部长帕姆·邦迪指示联邦调查局调查可能涉嫌资助国内恐怖主义的组织。在其备忘录中将国内恐怖主义者定义为“使用暴力或暴力威胁推进政治和社会议程，包括反对法律和移民执法；支持大规模移民和开放边境的极端观点；信奉激进性别意识形态、反美主义、反资本主义或反基督教”。
她的指令源于特朗普去年秋季发布的一项行政令，该行政令要求政府将“反法西斯行动（antifa）列为恐怖组织。
动议称，自那以来，包括联邦调查局局长卡什·帕特尔和民权事务助理司法部长哈米特·迪隆在内的多名特朗普政府高级官员已公开攻击南方贫困法律中心。
“证明存在真正恶意的最典型直接证据，就是检察官和行政部门官员发表的表明提起指控存在不当动机的言论，”该组织的律师在文件中写道。
Southern Poverty Law Center seeks dismissal of criminal charges, saying prosecution is vindictive
May 26, 2026 / 5:12 PM EDT / CBS News
Washington— The Southern Poverty Law Center on Tuesday asked a federal judge to dismiss the criminal charges filed against it by the Justice Department, saying the indictment represents a “top-down, retributive campaign” directed by President Trump to target his enemies.
The 47-page filing in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama documents a series of public statements by the president and other top administration officials targeting the center, including one in which Mr. Trump called it “one of the greatest political scams in American History.”
“This is the very definition of a vindictive prosecution,” lawyers for the SPLC wrote. “The Court should dismiss the indictment as a violation of due process.”
The Justice Department secured an 11-count indictment in April, chargingthe civil rights nonprofit with wire fraud and bank fraud. The indictment alleges that the group, which is best known for its work to oppose the Ku Klux Klan, lied to donors about paying confidential informants to infiltrate hate groups and deceived banks about the bank accounts used to make those payments.
The SPLC has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and vowed to fight them.
It is generally difficult to prevail in getting charges dismissed on the grounds of vindictive prosecution, but such requests have become increasingly common amid rising concerns among current and former Justice Department officials about cases being driven by political retribution.
Just last week, a federal judge dismissed smuggling charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran-born Maryland resident who was mistakenly deported by the Trump administration last year. The judge found that the Justice Department’s prosecution was vindictive.
Numerous former federal prosecutors have publicly weighed in on the indictment against the SPLC, saying it appears to be weak and has a likely chance of being dismissed due to a variety of legal defects with how the case is charged.
In the group’s motion to dismiss the charges on Tuesday, its lawyers noted that investigators from the FBI and IRS probed the organization and interviewed several people sometime between 2019 and 2020, but never sought criminal charges.
“Whatever its genesis or focus, the earlier inquiry resulted in no charges being brought,” they wrote.
Then, after the group became a frequent target of the Trump administration’s verbal assaults, the case was re-opened, SPLC’s lawyers noted. In the weeks and months before they informed the group that they were seeking an indictment, prosecutors did not seek any new documents or interview any current employees, the filing said.
“From the start of the second Trump Administration, targeting groups like the SPLC became a priority,” the group’s lawyers wrote.
Progressive nonprofits have been frequent targets of the Trump administration.
Last year, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi directed the FBI to investigate groups that may be suspected of funding acts of domestic terrorism. In her memo, she defined domestic terrorists as those who “use violence or the threat of violence to advance political and social agendas, including opposition to law and immigration enforcement; extreme views in favor of mass migration and open borders; adherence to radical gender ideology, anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, or anti-Christianity.”
Her directive was spawned by an executive order from Mr. Trump in the fall, which ordered the government to designate antifa as a terrorist group.
Since then, a number of high-profile Trump administration officials, including FBI Director Kash Patel and Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon, have publicly attacked the SPLC, the motion said.
“The quintessential forms of direct evidence of genuine animus are statements from prosecutors and Executive Branch officials expressing improper motivations for bringing charges,” its lawyers said in the filing.