Southern Poverty Law Center Justice Department

The Southern Poverty Law Center says a Justice Department indictment against the group is part of a “top-down” campaign of retribution against President Donald Trump’s perceived political enemies and represents a vindictive prosecution that must be dismissed. That's according to court papers filed Tuesday by the Alabama-based nonprofit. It 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 as a means of obtaining inside information. In a motion seeking to dismiss the indictment, lawyers for the group say the Justice Department rushed to bring a prosecution despite internal doubts about the strength of the evidence.