Daily Caller News Foundation

Democratic Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson served on the board of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) during the time it allegedly defrauded donors by paying “informants” in groups it deemed “extremist.”

The Department of Justice announced Tuesday that a grand jury in Alabama had indicted the SPLC on 11 counts, including wire fraud, making false statements to financial institutions and conspiracy to engage in money laundering. Benson, who is running for the Democratic nomination to succeed Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, served on the SPLC’s board of directors from 2014 to 2019 and also worked for the group as an investigative reporter, where she reportedly infiltrated white supremacist groups.

“Unbeknownst to donors, some of their donated money was being used to fund the leaders and organizers of racist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation and the National Alliance,” the indictment reads, going on to allege that one organizer of the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was a “field source” for the group.

The indictment alleges that the SPLC paid these informants $3,000,000 between 2014 and 2023, which includes Benson’s 2014-2019 tenure on the group’s board of directors. A spokesman for Benson in the Michigan Secretary of State’s office referred the Daily Caller News Foundation to Benson’s gubernatorial campaign for comment. Benson’s campaign didn’t immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

In her 2025 memoir, Benson said that during her time as an “investigative reporter” for the SPLC, she infiltrated white supremacist groups by posing as a freelance journalist, maintaining that her work thwarted plots and caused the collapse of one such group.

“I developed a deep understanding of the ways that extremist rhetoric and ideology lead to actual violence directed at individuals, communities, and, sometimes, entire nations,” Benson claimed in “The Purposeful Warrior.” “That understanding prepared me for what I would later face overseeing the 2020 presidential election — that there is a direct link from the violent rhetoric of leaders to the hateful acts of their followers.”

While Democrats have decried the indictment of the SPLC, the organization has previously come under fire for targeting mainstream conservative organizations.  In 2023, the group listed Parents Defending Education, Moms for Liberty and Parental Rights in Education as “hate groups.”

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In 2025, the group placed Turning Point USA (TPUSA) on its “hate map,” months before the conservative student group’s founder, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated during a Sept. 10, 2025, event at Utah Valley University. The SPLC’s “hate map” was used by a would-be mass shooter who targeted the Family Research Council in 2012, citing its social conservative message and opposition to certain pro-LGBT legislation.

In March 2023, a SPLC attorney was charged with domestic terrorism in connection with a riot targeting an Atlanta law enforcement training center known as “cop city.” The organization blamed police and defended the staffer.

The SPLC claimed that The Daily Caller served as a key bridge for extremist rhetoric by frequently publishing the work of white nationalists, citing its brief affiliation with “Unite the Right” organizer Jason Kessler. The Daily Caller terminated its contract with Kessler when his connection to “Unite the Right” was discovered.

Groups appearing on the SPLC’s listings as a “hate group” or “extremist” often have their ability to receive donations through workplace donations blocked.

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