Representative Andy Biggs (R-AZ) weighed in on the recent indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for sending money to hate groups to foment racism.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently indicted the SPLC on 11 counts of money laundering, bank fraud, and wire fraud. According to the indictment, the SPLC paid leading members of hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and other white supremacist groups to foment racism, which the Law Center disputes by saying they were sending in paid informants.
However, in a recent appearance on Fox Business's Bottom Line, Rep. Biggs argued the group "shot any credibility that they had." "If you are just using informants, why are you setting up all of these ghost bank accounts and ghost business entities to basically funnel money?" he questioned.
"Why are you doing these wire transfers and bank transfers, which are included in the indictment? Because you were trying to hide what you were doing from your donors." he continued.
Host Dagen McDowell noted that the SPLC lumped in conservative groups like Moms for Liberty, the American College of Pediatricians, and the Alliance for Defending Freedom with the very same extremist groups they were helping to fund, speculating on how deep the rabbit hole goes.
"Yeah, they basically shot any credibility that they had," the Arizona congressman replied. "And for most people that were objectively watching them over the years, they had already spent their goodwill. So they were viewed by many of us as being totally fraudsters, because they were taking innocent groups, Moms for Liberty, as you said, or the Family Research Council, they are saying these are hate groups, and in the meantime, they are actually following the people that are causing the hate in our society."
Biggs concluded that the point of the indictments is that the SPLC was covering this up.
"They are going to have to respond with something more than, 'Oh, we were just doing our business.' You lied to your donors, you lied to the American public, and that is something that you are going to have to own."
