The leader of the Southern Poverty Law Center has pleaded not guilty on behalf of the organization to charges that the civil rights group has defrauded donors by failing to disclose that money would be paid to informants inside extremist groups.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has told a federal court that law enforcement agencies knew for years that the nonprofit was paying informants to report on the movements of hate groups.

In a story published April 21, 2026, about a Justice Department case against the Southern Poverty Law Center, The Associated Press erroneously reported that an informant was allegedly paid more than $270,000 between 2015 and 2013.