The SPLC Called This Assault on Christians and Conservatives a ‘Conspiracy Theory’ — While Being Part of the Actual Conspiracy

[Hat tip: Revolver] — The Washington Examiner reports that officials of the U.S. Treasury Department have issued a report accusing the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) of a key role in the “debanking” and denial of services to Christian and conservative organizations, which the SPLC itself had labeled as “hate groups.” This contradicts the SPLC’s published claim that such financial deplatforming is a “conspiracy theory” propagated by the “Christian supremacy movement.”

This development follows a recent spate of misfortunes for the Alabama-based fundraising organization, including the late summer arrest of former SPLC CFO, Heidi Beirich, on federal fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges.

The latest revelations were disclosed in a 47-page report by the Office of the Comptroller of Currency, a federal bureau within the Treasury Department tasked with regulating banks.

Below is an AI-produced summary of the Washington Examiner article by Mia Cathell: ¹

• Federal finance authorities have directly linked the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) “hate group” labels to the debanking of conservative individuals and organizations, particularly those supporting Christian causes.
• These findings contradict the SPLC’s own “Hatewatch” project, which recently dismissed claims of anti-Christian debanking as a “conspiracy theory” propagated by the “Christian supremacy movement.”
• The SPLC is currently facing criminal conspiracy charges for allegedly misusing donor funds to finance extremist groups it claimed to be dismantling.
• An October 14 report from the Office of the Comptroller of Currency, a U.S. Treasury Department bureau, revealed that the SPLC’s designations were politically influencing debanking decisions at major financial institutions like PNC Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and TD Bank.
• The report stated the SPLC played a crucial role in denying financial services to conservative clients aiming to support Christian groups or individuals.
• Despite the SPLC’s claims that “anti-LGBTQ+ hate group” Alliance Defending Freedom was spreading “conspiratorial claims of Christian victimhood,” the Treasury report found that banks were indeed basing debanking decisions on the SPLC’s “hate group” classifications.
• Many organizations and individuals labeled in the SPLC’s “Extremist Files” are actually moderate conservative commentators, charities, and activists.
• The SPLC’s “tracking hate” work faced further scrutiny following criminal indictments in April for wire fraud and money laundering, alleging that the SPLC manufactured “hate” to profit by paying operatives to infiltrate neo-Nazi groups.
• Treasury officials found that PNC Bank refused a line of credit to a media company due to “reputational risk,” citing the SPLC’s identification of Christian conservative groups funded by the owners as “hate groups.”
• An internal PNC Bank email indicated a “hard no” on the credit, stating alignment with the company would be difficult given the owners’ opinions “contrary to PNC’s beliefs/values.”
• WePay, a former JPMorgan Chase subsidiary, terminated an account used to fund a legal challenge by a “devout Christian” against anti-discrimination laws, after escalating the matter to JPMorgan Chase’s reputational risk officers.
• WePay screened clients against a list of terms, including “hate groups” identified by organizations like the SPLC, and utilized search terms like “MAGA,” “Make America Great,” and “America First” to flag “prohibited activities.”
• In February 2021, WePay closed a retailer’s account selling Trump and MAGA merchandise, citing violations of its terms of service and that such items were on its blacklist.
• In June 2021, WePay closed the account of a “right-wing religious conservative nonprofit with strong anti-LGBTQ rhetoric,” with internal discussions mentioning the SPLC’s “extremist hate group” categorization.
• JPMorgan Chase’s reputational risk officers advised exiting that account, though two years later, an employee re-labeled the organization as a “conservative education and research organization.”
• JPMorgan Chase stated it discontinued WePay because it “did not meet our expectations” and that “our policies prohibit discrimination against customers based on political or religious views,” acknowledging they “learned from it, and improved the way we do business.”

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