WASHINGTON — The Justice Department criminally indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center on charges of wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering in a case filed in federal court in Alabama. The department alleges the civil rights group violated federal law through its network of paid informants in extremist groups, and that those payments funded hate groups and misled donors.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement: "The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence. We will hold the SPLC and every other fraudulent organization operating with the same deceptive playbook accountable."

The Southern Poverty Law Center, based in Montgomery, Alabama, was founded in 1971. In October, FBI Director Kash Patel canceled the agency's anti-extremism partnerships with the group and the Anti-Defamation League.

In rounds of calls immediately following the indictment, advocates discussed how to support the organization, and organizers on one call agreed that winning in the court of public opinion would be crucial as judicial proceedings began. Dozens of public statements of support and planned rallies followed.

Vanita Gupta, former associate attorney general of the Justice Department, led one of the calls convening activists. "There's a muscle that has been built among these organizations learned from the law firm debacle," she said. "The government's goal is often to shut down and paralyze an organization, so that their work has to stop while they defend themselves. And the hope here is that with this broad effort to defend the SPLC, that will not happen."

A coalition of more than 100 activist groups, including the Southern Poverty Law Center, published a letter vowing solidarity with organizations they consider unjustly targeted by the federal government. "An attack on one is an attack on all," the coalition declared. "We will share knowledge, resources, and support with any organization threatened by abuses of power."

Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, said the case represented a shift at the agency. "The indictment is nakedly political and represents the Justice Department turning on itself," he said. "It places the Justice Department in the posture of, in effect, defending white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan and others."

Legal advisors urged civil rights organizers to prepare for similar criminal indictments, protracted legal action and audits of staff and internal documents. Civil rights organizations reviewed their document retention, tax compliance and auditing policies over the past year to safeguard against probes or lawsuits. Some have floated creating new organizational structures to better withstand legal scrutiny, including restructuring groups into for-profit entities or creating new financial conduits for donors to ensure staff could receive pay if assets were seized or frozen.