By Evaristo Lara
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called out President Donald Trump for allegedly using the Department of Justice (DOJ) to exact revenge of those who represent an obstacle to their policies.
The New York Democrat’s allegations arise from the recent 11-count indictment issued by the DOJ against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
The list includes bank and wire fraud, as well as alleged ties to a now-defunct program that used paid informants to monitor extremist groups.
Regarding this last point, several informants employed by the SPLC are mentioned to supervise the planning of the demonstration called “Unite the Upright”, which took place in 2017, in Charlottesville, involving a neo-Nazi group, the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist and anti-Semitic groups.
Before the Senate floor, Chuck Schumer indicated that the position taken by the DOJ is worrying.
“I want to say a few words about the deeply disturbing allegations that the Department of Justice has brought against the Southern Poverty Law Center.
These accusations should chill the blood of every American who cares about free speech and the rule of law at the Department of Justice. “They should chill the blood of every American who cares about civil liberties and the fight against extremism,” he said.
The 75-year-old Democrat even accused Donald Trump of turning the DOJ into the Department of Revenge.
“Let’s be clear about what this case is about, what it’s really about. It has nothing to do with alleged wire fraud or the Southern Poverty Law Center working in coordination with the KKK. That’s blatantly ridiculous. It’s not funny. It’s about “Donald Trump has turned the Department of Justice into the Department of Revenge, his own watchdog,” he stressed.
However, Todd Blanche, acting attorney general, mentioned that the SPLC committed wrongdoing by paying “sources to stoke racial hatred.”
“To that end, he was doing exactly the opposite of what he had told his donors. He was not dismantling extremism, but funding it.
To carry out this idea, the SPLC created bank accounts in the names of at least five completely fictitious organizations that had no real employees or a legitimate business purpose,” he said.
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