Benson led organization under FBI investigation for laundering money to extremist groups like the KKK

State Rep. Rachelle Smit this week led the House passage of a resolution demanding Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson voluntarily release any information in her possession related to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)’s operations, following an FBI investigation that led to criminal charges against the organization.

“The Legislature has a responsibility to hold state officers accountable for their actions; especially when those actions throw their ability to carry out constitutionally mandated responsibilities into question,” said Smit, R-Martin. “If the person charged with operating our elections fairly for all Michiganders stands accused of leading an organization funneling money to hate groups like the KKK, lawmakers must demand accountability.”

Last month, the SPLC was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges including money laundering and wire fraud. The federal indictment alleges that, between 2014 and 2023, “the SPLC secretly funneled more than $3 million in SPLC funds to[individuals] who were associated with various violent extremistgroups,” including the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nations, and the National Socialist Party of America.

Benson served on the SPLC’s Board of Director’s from 2014 through 2018, just before her election as Secretary of State, directly overlapping with the years covered by the federal indictment.

“Secretary Benson led an organization now accused of funneling money to some of the most hateful, twisted extremist groups in our nation,” Smit said. “Secretary Benson is at a very serious crossroads. Did she knowingly help fund some of the worst extremist group in the U.S., or was she blind at the wheel of an organization laundering money to perpetuate hate? Her full transparency with the records in question is the only thing that will bring peace of mind to the people of Michigan.”

Federal law enforcement alleges that the SPLC was actively solicitingdonations under false pretenses, advertising itself to donors as anentity that fights the very extremism it was allegedly funding.

Ata press conference, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche stated:“As the indictment describes, the SPLC was not dismantling these groups. It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.”

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