Overview
- A federal magistrate in Montgomery set a tentative Oct. 5 trial after the SPLC pleaded not guilty to 11 counts.
- Prosecutors say a long-running informant program paid insiders in white supremacist groups, enriched those networks, and misled donors.
- SPLC attorneys argue the work was lawful intelligence gathering and call the prosecution political, with Abbe Lowell pledging to fight the charges.
- The parties are clashing over whether local or federal rules control discovery, and the judge ordered briefing on that dispute.
- Former U.S. attorney Joyce Vance questioned whether prosecutors can find donors who felt deceived by the use of paid informants.