The Brief | The SPLC Just Got Indicted for Allegedly Cutting Checks to the Klan
Plus: two CIA officers die on a Mexican mountain road, Virginia approves a 10-1 gerrymander by three points, Patel sues The Atlantic for $250M, and Congress can't stop expelling itself.
Happy Wednesday, friends!
A lot is happening at once, and with the Iran conflict dominating the headlines a lot is slipping past the morning scroll.
So, let’s get into it!
In today’s Brief:
SPLC got indicted on 11 counts for allegedly funneling $3M to actual Klansmen.
Two Americans died on a cliff road in Chihuahua. Mexico’s president had no idea they were there. They were CIA.
Kash Patel filed a $250M suit against The Atlantic. The legal bar is a wall.
Virginia voters passed a 10-1 Democratic gerrymander by three points. Half the state is locked out of the House map. Lawsuits pending.
Three House members resigned in a week; Mace and Mills are drafting expulsion resolutions against each other.
Plus Iran threatens to break the blockade by force, Ilhan Omar’s vanishing $30M, and a Michigan Dem convention that shows where the base is going.
The DOJ Drops an 11-Count Indictment on the SPLC
Tuesday afternoon, a grand jury in the Middle District of Alabama returned an 11-count indictment against the SPLC: six counts of wire fraud, four of bank fraud, one of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Acting AG Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel announced it together.
Between 2014 and 2023, SPLC allegedly paid $3M to eight individuals tied to the KKK, the National Socialist Movement, Aryan Nations, and the American Front. One ~$270,000 payment went to a leader who helped plan the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville which lead to the death of Heather Danielle Heyer. DOJ says SPLC routed the money through shell companies and prepaid cards to hide the source.
SPLC interim CEO Bryan Fair announced the probe himself in a Tuesday YouTube video, framing it as Trump-administration weaponization.
What does this actually mean?
The SPLC is charged as an entity, not any individual leaders. The corporation faces 11 federal felonies and, if convicted, potentially millions in fines, court-ordered oversight of its finances, restitution to donors, and a real fight over its tax-exempt status. Corporations can’t go to prison, so the penalties are financial and structural. But Blanche and Patel made clear Tuesday that the investigation is ongoing and “individuals who are responsible will be brought to justice.”
Translation: anyone who authorized the payments or helped hide them could still get hit with their own charges, and federal fraud and money-laundering convictions carry real prison time. Next up is arraignment (expect a not-guilty plea), then discovery, motions, and either a plea deal or a jury trial. DOJ has also already filed actions to claw back the alleged proceeds.
Patel cut FBI ties with SPLC last October after it labeled Turning Point USA a hate group. On September 9, one day before Charlie Kirk was assassinated, SPLC published a hostile newsletter about him. Kirk’s producer Andrew Kolvet has publicly asked whether it contributed to the shooter’s motive.
The "hate group" label isn't rhetorical. It carries financial teeth. Fundraising platforms, credit card processors, and Big Tech companies quietly use the SPLC's hate map to decide who they'll do business with. The Ruth Institute, a pro-family Christian nonprofit in Louisiana, got dropped by its credit card processor in 2017, then refused by fundraising platform Salsa Labs in 2021 after SPLC flagged them "anti-LGBTQ." The Salsa Labs employee handling the account wrote back privately that it was "absolutely RIDICULOUS that the SPLC gets to pick and choose who is a hate group." His CEO agreed, but the board wouldn't budge.
The SPLC built a career calling mainstream conservative organizations like Family Research Council, Moms for Liberty, and parents’ rights groups “hate groups.” Well, now they are charged with bankrolling actual Klansmen. “SPLC-designated hate group” is going to read differently going forward.
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Two CIA Officers Just Died on a Mountain Road in Mexico
Sunday morning, a convoy of six wound down a mountain road in northern Chihuahua. One vehicle skidded off, plunged 600 feet into a ravine, and exploded. Four dead: two Mexican state investigators, two Americans.
For 24 hours, the U.S. Embassy called them “embassy personnel.” Turns out they were CIA. They’d just come from the destruction of what Chihuahua’s AG called “perhaps one of the largest” clandestine meth labs ever located in Mexico.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said flatly, “It was not an operation the security cabinet was aware of. We were not informed.” She’s opening a federal investigation into possible national security law violations. The State AG of Chihuahua spent Monday contradicting himself about whether the Americans participated, before settling on: they taught a drone class nearby and hitched a ride back.
Okay.
Under CIA Director John Ratcliffe, the agency has quietly expanded its counternarcotics role: intel sharing, training, unarmed MQ-9 Reapers over Mexico. Ambassador Ronald Johnson is himself a 20-year CIA vet. Same week: visa restrictions on Sinaloa cartel family members.
Two Americans died running an operation most Americans had no idea was happening. Ask why the Embassy tried to call them “embassy personnel” first.
The FBI Director Sues For $250 Million
Friday, The Atlantic published a two-dozen-source piece on FBI Director Kash Patel. Rough allegations: conspicuous intoxication in front of White House staff, a security detail that couldn’t wake him, a request for “breaching equipment” to get him out of a locked room, meetings rescheduled around alcohol-fueled nights, firing an Iran-focused counterintel squad days before the Iran war started.
Monday, Patel filed a $250M defamation suit in D.C. federal court.
FBI Director Kash Patel @FBIDirectorKash see you and your entire entourage of false reporting in court... actual malice standard is now what some would call a legal lay up.
Reuters couldn't verify a single claim in The Atlantic's piece. The magazine quietly changed the headline from "Kash Patel's Erratic Behavior Could Cost Him His Job" to "The FBI Director Is MIA" after publication, with no public explanation. Every allegation ran on anonymous sourcing. On the record?
Former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino told Reuters he never once found Patel unreachable, adding, "You reach out to the deputy, and that's me." Patel's comms strategist Erica Knight called it a story "every real DC reporter chased, couldn't verify, and passed on." This is also the same magazine that ran stories on Pam Bondi and Pete Hegseth both with unnamed sources, zero people willing to sign their name meanwhile many publically disputed their reporting. Wash and repeat for Patel with a quiet headline swap after the piece went live. At some point it stops looking like journalism.
“Actual malice” is not a legal lay-up. It’s one of the highest bars in law, set by NYT v. Sullivan. Public officials must prove a publisher knew a claim was false or acted with reckless disregard. Media lawyers are openly skeptical. Trump has lost similar suits against CNN, the NYT, and the WSJ.
Patel’s stronger card: The Atlantic sent him 19 detailed questions Friday at 4 p.m. His lawyer asked for more time. The magazine published at 6:20 p.m. That’s the cleanest evidence for recklessness.
Also: a DOJ watchdog has now requested Patel’s calendars and security detail messages. Suing for $250M while an IG is pulling your schedule is a choice.
Virginia Just Approved the Country’s Most Aggressive Gerrymander by Three Points
Tuesday, Virginia voters narrowly approved a redistricting referendum handing the Democratic General Assembly the keys to redraw every congressional line until 2030. Final margin: 51% to 48%. Three points, in a state Kamala Harris won by just under 52% in 2024.
The delegation flips from 6-5 Democratic to a projected 10-1 split. Four new Democratic House seats. Virginia approved a bipartisan redistricting commission in 2020 by a nearly 2-to-1 margin. Tuesday’s vote suspends it so Democrats can draw the maps themselves.
The disenfranchisement case is real. CBS noted rural voters “said the new map disenfranchises them.” Former GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin called the process “unconstitutional” and said it “will disenfranchise millions.” Argue the math however you want: in a state Harris won 52-48, Republicans get one of eleven seats.
Nearly $100M poured into the race, 95% from dark money. Pro: $64M. Anti: ~$20M.
The legal fight is teed up. Lower courts blocked the referendum twice before the Virginia Supreme Court let it proceed while considering the underlying challenges. GOP lawsuits are still pending. Eric Cantor and Jason Miyares, who ran the opposition, said it plainly: “Virginians disenfranchised by today’s vote will have their day in court.”
One last note. Gov. Abigail Spanberger said during her 2025 campaign, “I have no plans to redistrict Virginia.” Six months later, Virgina gets hosed.
Congress Is Imploding in Real Time, UGH
Three resignations in a week. Two sitting members drafting expulsion resolutions against each other. Bipartisan dirtbag energy.
Florida Democrat Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick resigned Tuesday moments before her Ethics hearing. The committee had found 25 of 27 violations “proven by clear and convincing evidence.” Shopping list: FEMA fraud, a 3-carat yellow diamond, a Tesla, Tiffany jewelry, cruises. She called it a “witch hunt.” Third resignation this week, joining Eric Swalwell (D-CA) over sexual misconduct and Tony Gonzales (R-TX) over an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide.
Then the Mace-Mills speedrun. Mace filed a resolution Monday to expel Mills over domestic violence, sexual misconduct, and stolen valor, calling him “a woman beater and a fraud.” Mills is drafting one right back. Both are under separate Ethics probes.
But the WaPo’s body-cam story is the damning piece for Mills. A D.C. officer wanted to arrest Mills in February 2025 after a woman showed him bruises. A lieutenant overruled it. Mills said allegations would be “weaponized because of my party” and tried to call AG Bondi mid-interview.
Neither party has clean hands. That’s the point. They are all trash.
Quick Rundown
Iran ceasefire extended, Pakistan talks stalled. Trump extended the ceasefire indefinitely Tuesday with the blockade staying put. Vance's Pakistan trip is postponed indefinitely after Iran refused to commit to the Islamabad meeting. Tehran threatens to break the blockade "by force, if necessary." Buried detail: Adm. Paparo told Congress it'll take one to two years to scale Tomahawk and Patriot production.
Ilhan Omar’s vanishing $30 million. Her financial disclosure swung from $6M–$30M down to $18K–$95K after the Office of Congressional Conduct came asking questions. Her lawyer blamed the accountant. Whip Tom Emmer joked the accountant must have trained at Minnesota’s Learning Center, the daycare in the Nick Shirley fraud video.
Tom Emmer@GOPMajorityWhipIlhan Omar’s multimillion-dollar financial disclosure revision is just the latest on a long list of her questionable actions. She cannot escape accountability for long.4:05 PM · Apr 21, 2026 · 72.7K Views457 Replies · 1.17K Reposts · 6.86K LikesSenate GOP goes nuclear on ICE funding. A 52-46 party-line vote Tuesday kicked off reconciliation to fund ICE and CBP for 3.5 years, up to $140B authorized. DHS has been shut since Feb. 14. Trump wants it signed by June 1.
Michigan Dems show their cards. Progressive Amir Makled upset incumbent Jordan Acker for the UMich Board of Regents nomination Sunday, despite old retweets praising Hezbollah leaders. Acker was caught in sexually degrading Slack messages which he claimed were fake. Pro-Israel Senate candidate Haley Stevens got booed off the stage. That’s where the base is going.
Let’s Talk About It
Virginia passed a 10-1 Democratic map by barely three points in a state Harris won by four. If this stands in court, what does “fair representation” even mean going forward? Are any of you in VA? How are you feeling today?
Wrong answers only: Ilhan Omar’s accountant made a $29.9 million arithmetic error. What’s the worst math mistake you’ve ever made in your own life?
Drop your takes in the comments. See you Friday.
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I live in VA and what happened is disappointing. Parties aside, it’s wrong. I am from CA. I have seen what can happen and fear something similar will happen here. In theory the census will rebalance the districts but I have little hope. I fear the Democrats will do something to somehow solidify their grip. There are messes on both sides of the aisle. It’s more than clear but taking away others’ votes for a personal win is wrong and unravels threads in a 2-party political system that safe guards us from dictatorship, the very thing Dems seem to be fighting. Irony at its finest.
Hi did you already discuss the firing of Pam Bondi and I missed it? Somehow I turned around and that happened when I wasn’t looking