WASHINGTON (AP) — A Justice Department indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center is part of a “top-down” campaign of retribution against President Donald Trump's perceived political enemies and constitutes a vindictive prosecution that must be dismissed, lawyers for the nonprofit argued Tuesday in urging a judge to toss the case out.
The Alabama-based nonprofit was indicted in April on fraud and money laundering charges that accuse it of misleading donors by paying informants inside white supremacist and other extremist organizations to obtain inside information about their activities.
Lawyers for the SPLC have already argued that law enforcement agencies have long known that the nonprofit paid informants to report on the movements of hate groups. They have also said acting Attorney General Todd Blanche made a false statement at a news conference when he said the organization had not shared with law enforcement information it had learned from informants. Blanche later appeared to walk back that claim in a television interview, saying it was true that the SPLC had “selectively” shared information with law enforcement over the years.
The attorneys for the center expanded on those arguments Tuesday, saying in a legal brief seeking to dismiss the case that the prosecution was the “culmination of a top-down, retributive campaign" in which Trump pushed the Justice Department "to go after those individuals and groups he deemed his political enemies, including the SPLC.”
The brief was filed against the backdrop of other politically charged prosecutions that have raised concerns that the Justice Department is operating as a weapon to target Trump's opponents. It drew a parallel between the SPLC indictment and the human smuggling prosecution of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, which was dismissed Friday on similar vindictive prosecution grounds by a judge who called the case an “abuse of prosecuting power.”
The SPLC has said its now-defunct program of paying informants to infiltrate hate groups was developed to glean key insights into their activities so that potential victims could be protected. An earlier federal investigation into the practice was closed without charges, but the brief paints the current Justice Department as pursuing the case with renewed — and rushed — vigor.
The department decided to pursue the indictment without having interviewed any current SPLC employees, and did not seek any documents from the group until after it had told defense lawyers that criminal charges were forthcoming, defense lawyers say.
During a meeting requested by defense lawyers who hoped to avert to indictment, Justice Department officials informed them that the decision had already been made to pursue charges, according to the brief.
“These procedural irregularities show that the charges against the SPLC were a foregone conclusion based on prosecutorial vindictiveness — driven by the White House and FBI leadership’s retribution campaign — rather than the result of a good faith examination of the evidence,” the document states. It says the indictment was “premised on conclusory accusations but devoid of provable facts or a proper statement of the law.”
The motion also cites whistleblower accounts that accused top Justice Department officials of rushing forward with an indictment despite internal concerns about the merits of the case and the strength of the evidence.
“For weeks, we have been arguing against these false allegations levied against the SPLC — an organization that for 55 years has stood as a beacon of hope fighting white supremacy and various forms of injustice to create a multiracial democracy where we can all live and thrive,” Bryan Fair, the interim president and CEO of SPLC, said in a statement.
“The government can’t prosecute the SPLC as payback for its protected speech — it violates basic constitutional rights," he said.
Founded in 1971 as a civil rights organization, the SPLC over the decades has used litigation to fight white supremacist groups. It also tracks the activities and locations of domestic extremists. But its work has made it a popular target among Republicans who see it as overly leftist and partisan.
The center, for instance, received fresh attention last year after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk because the SPLC had included a section on the group that Kirk founded and led, Turning Point USA, in a report titled “The Year in Hate and Extremism 2024."
FBI Director Kash Patel announced in October that the bureau would be severing its relationship with the SPLC, saying it had turned into a “partisan smear machine,” and he accused it of defaming “mainstream Americans” with its “hate map” that documents alleged anti-government and hate groups inside the United States.
The defense motion says “animus” from senior levels of the administration helped shape the indictment.
It cites, among other comments, a statement from Trump himself deriding the SPLC as “a total scam run by the Democrats,” as well as a news media interview in which Harmeet Dhillon, the Justice Department's top civil rights official, said the indictment was “personal” to her because she had “a lot of journalist friends ... and groups that I’ve represented who have been targeted by the Southern Poverty Law Center.”
FILE - Acting U.S. attorney general Todd Blanche speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department, May 4, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
GARDEN GROVE, Calif. (AP) — About 16,000 people remain under evacuation orders in Southern California as an overheated chemical tank still poses a risk to homes closest to the site, and officials Tuesday gave no word on when they might be able to return home.
The crisis forced 50,000 people to evacuate in and around the Orange County city of Garden Grove last week. A crack that formed by chance on the tank relieved pressure and helped avert a catastrophic explosion, allowing most evacuees to return home over the Memorial Day weekend.
But the risk of a smaller explosion or potential spill kept orders in place for about a third of the evacuees. Many are living out of hotel rooms, tents, emergency shelters at schools or staying with family or friends.
Isabel Mendez was among those still waiting to return to her mobile home. She said she broke out in a rash on her face and developed tingling lips and a sore throat while evacuating last week. After spending several expensive nights in a hotel, she is now staying with her mother in the Los Angeles area.
She remains uncertain about returning home because she does not trust official assurances that the area is safe.
“Of course it is still dangerous,” she said.
Exposure to methyl methacrylate — a highly flammable chemical used to make plastics — can cause serious respiratory problems, neurological problems and irritation to the skin, eyes and throat, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency. The tank at GKN Aerospace Transparency Systems, which makes cockpit windows, canopies and windshields, contains 6,000 to 7,000 gallons (22,700 to 26,500 liters) of the chemical.
“We apologize for the ongoing disruption this incident is causing and our priority remains its safe resolution,” the company said, “so that residents can return to their homes as quickly as possible.”
Separately, an implosion of a chemical tank Tuesday at a pulp and paper mill in Washington state injured at least 10 people, while an undisclosed number of others had been killed or remained missing.
Crews at the California plant worked overnight to ensure two nearby tanks were neutralized and would not be affected by the compromised tank, Orange County Fire Capt. Brian Yau said.
The tank overheated because a valve on the cooling system failed that kept it at at 50 degrees, (10 degrees Celsius), said Orange County Fire Authority Division Chief Craig Covey.
Crews sprayed water on the tank until the interior temperature stabilized to 92 F (33.3 C), down from 100 F (37.7 C) over the weekend, the fire department said Tuesday. A sprinkler system is still dousing the tank, and the company said its technical specialists and firefighters removed insulation from the tank to help cool it.
So far testing has found no contamination, officials said.
Orange County Health Director Regina Chinsio-Kwong tried to reassure people returning home over the holiday weekend, saying "you should feel comfortable going home even if you’re across the street from that new zone line.”
The crisis interrupted Memorial Day plans, graduation ceremonies and daily life in central Orange County, which is made up of a cluster of cities including Garden Grove.
The city of 170,000 people, along with neighboring Westminster, is home to Little Saigon, the largest Vietnamese community outside Vietnam, and is next to Anaheim, home to Disneyland’s two theme parks, which were outside the evacuation zone.
Henry Nguyen, a 56-year-old auto mechanic, and his family spent the first two nights sleeping in their car.
Days into the evacuation, Nguyen said he sneaked into their Stanton home, which was filled with fumes, to rescue the family’s dog, cat and betta fish.
He also got a tent, which he pitched by an emergency shelter that officials set up in a nearby park building in Fountain Valley. Nguyen said he’s trying to focus on the experience like it’s a camping trip in the heart of densely populated Orange County.
He even brought archery equipment to use at a range in the park to help his teenage daughter, who was back at high school Tuesday, keep busy until they can go home.
“There’s no time frame,” he said.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District will monitor the air for several months and the EPA will be checking sewer and storm drains for spills, Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen said.
As the tank heated up, the chemical converted from liquid to gas, ramping up the pressure and explosion risk, said Andrew Whelton, a Purdue University engineering professor who has studied environmental contamination. Some of the methyl methacrylate may already have hardened into a stable plastic similar to plexiglass, reducing the danger, he said.
“The tank was on track for a catastrophic explosion,” Whelton said. “The formation of a crack seems to have allowed pressure to vent.”
The risk remains of a smaller blast that could send projectiles or even a chemical plume toward nearby homes, he said.
The tank needs to get closer to 60 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit (15.6 to 21.1 degrees C) before conditions are considered significantly safer, he said.
The California crisis is reminiscent of a 2014 chemical spill in Charleston, West Virginia when storage tanks failed. The disaster inspired a new state law requiring more inspections and registrations of aboveground storage tanks.
This story has been updated to correct a quote’s attribution to Orange County Fire Authority Division Chief Craig Covey not TJ McGovern, an interim fire chief of the Orange County Fire Authority.
Weber reported from Los Angeles and Bellisle from Seattle. Associated Press journalists Leah Willingham in Boston; Jamie Stengle in Dallas; and Ethan Swope in Garden Grove, California, contributed to this report.
Two evacuees sit in their pickup truck at a gas station within the evacuation zone in Stanton, Calif., Monday, May 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
An aerial view shows a police checkpoint enforcing a road closure at the evacuation zone boundary in Anaheim, Calif., Monday, May 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Jan De Jonge and fiancé Sher Stuckman set up a tent with their belonging and pet outside the Elks Lodge in Garden Grove, Calif., on Monday, May 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
An evacuation map is displayed at the incident command post at the Los Alamitos Race Course in Cypress, Calif., on Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Water is sprayed on a damaged tank at GKN Aerospace in Garden Grove, Calif., on Sunday, May 24, 2026, after the tank containing a chemical used to make plastic parts overheated Thursday. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
People walk outside Freedom Hall, an evacuation center in Fountain Valley, Calif., on Monday, May 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
An American Red Cross volunteer walks outside Freedom Hall, an evacuation center in Fountain Valley, Calif.,on Monday, May 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
People tend to their pets outside Freedom Hall, an evacuation center in Fountain Valley, Calif., on Monday, May 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
