by Ben Whedon
The Department of Justice (DOJ) charged the scandal-stained SPLC with fraud, saying donors were cheated by the organization paying exorbitant sums to members of extremist groups, both to act as informants and to recruit and expand their operations. The SPLC has denied wrongdoing in the case.
A recent report from the Office of the Comptroller of Currency (OCC) in the Treasury Department shows that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) was a driving force behind the debanking of conservative groups prior to its indictment.
The SPLC is a left-wing anti-racism advocacy group that has faced scrutiny from conservatives for years over its alleged bias against them and penchant for labeling mainstream political figures on the right as “extremists.”
The group has also faced withering criticism from the left, such as Ken Silverstein, who followed its expelled founder Morris Dees for years for Harper's and The New Yorker.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged the SPLC with allegedly defrauding donors by paying exorbitant sums to members of extremist groups, both to act as informants and to recruit and expand their operations.
The SPLC has denied wrongdoing in the case, and said in a statement that "The charges against the SPLC are provably wrong; they are based on inaccurate facts and a misapplication of law. Our informant program was successful in accomplishing its purposes: Threats and attacks were prevented, criminal activity was stopped, and information was gathered to dismantle the efforts of hate and extremist groups."
The OCC report, released last week, detailed the efforts of financial applications, banks, and other institutions to deny service to conservative organizations, particularly highlighting the SPLC’s role. Many of the groups the report documented had been labeled as hate groups by the organization. Driving much of the effort were broad reputational risk policies that the OCC generally swept up many mainstream conservative groups.
Banks share blame for weaponization against conservatives
“Today’s report provides irrefutable evidence that the nation’s largest banks have denied, debanked and discriminated against customers and lawful businesses,” Comptroller Jonathan Gould said at the time. “Americans should have access to financial services regardless of their beliefs, affiliations, or political views. Fair access to financial services is not a mantra—it is a mandate. The Trump Administration is committed to ending the weaponization of finance against hardworking Americans, once and for all.”
Among the top findings of the OCC were that banks largely did not have quantifiable standards for determining the reputational risk of maintaining relationships with specific customers. Those standards, moreover, allegedly came to the detriment of generally right-wing groups. The report also documented damage to specific industries that were affected heavily by debanking.
Free speech organizations reacted positively to the report. Speaking on the “Just the News, No Noise” television show, Alliance Defending Freedom’s Matt Sharp called the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on debanking “a huge win for every single American.”
Credit cards and loans canceled because of the customer's religious or political beliefs
Sharp went on to insist that the next step toward ending the practice would be to bring accountability to the institutions that pushed it in the first place.
“So, I think the first step we can do is [hold] them accountable is one of the best things we can do to make sure that this never happens again, and that those that were harmed by it can rest assured that they will never face debanking again,” he said. “They will never worry about their credit card or loan being canceled because of their religious or political beliefs. I think that's going to be the huge next step we need to take in terms of accountability.”
Some states have gotten ahead of the curve by passing legislation aimed toward preventing debanking or otherwise scrutinizing their customer relationships. Sharp, for his part, cheered those efforts.
“I know some of these states that have already passed these laws, have looked at what they can do, not only against the banks but against the SPLC and others that were behind a lot of this, that were behind a lot of this ideological warfare against people by shutting down their accounts, putting other pressure on them,” he said.
Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.
Source: https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/tuesplc-drove-debanking-conservative-groups-treasury-report-shows
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