Benson led organization facing federal charges for laundering money to extremist groups like the KKK

The Michigan state House Oversight Committee today released newly obtained emails detailing the extended, close relationship between Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) – which is facing federal criminal charges following an FBI investigation. The emails, recently obtained from the Michigan Department of State, reveal that Benson continued her relationship with the SPLC even after taking office in 2019.

“The people of Michigan deserve answers when one of their most prominent public servants is deeply tied to an organization facing federal criminal charges,” said House Oversight Committee Chair Jay DeBoyer. “Secretary Benson has a long, documented history with the Southern Poverty Law Center – one that she continued even after becoming Michigan’s Secretary of State. That same organization that she is so closely connected to is now charged with taking money from donors who believed their dollars were going to combat hate and directly overseeing the process in which those dollars were funneled to support the very hateful acts the SPLC was claiming to stop.”

Earlier this year, the SPLC was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges including money laundering and wire fraud. The federal indictment alleges that, between 2014 and 2023, “the SPLC secretly funneled more than $3 million in SPLC funds to[individuals] who were associated with various violent extremist groups,” including the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nations, and the National Socialist Party of America. Benson served on the SPLC’s Board of Directors from 2014 through 2018, just before her election as Secretary of State, directly overlapping with the years covered by the federal indictment.

The emails released on Wednesday outline Benson’s continued engagement with SPLC leaders – including her involvement in an SPLC event with other secretaries of state from across the nation in May of 2019, months after she took over MDOS.

The documents also include more recent emails between Benson staff members responding to media inquiries regarding the criminal charges against SPLC, including documented instances of taking the conversations “offline,” a move DeBoyer says government employees commonly use to hide their conversations from records requests.

“The emails released today prove that Secretary Benson maintained a working relationship with the Southern Poverty Law Center even after becoming Secretary of State,” said state Rep. Rachelle Smit. “Her continued embrace of the SPLC makes her current situation even more difficult. Benson led an organization accused of funneling money to hate groups and domestic terrorists. The public should rightfully question whether she was directly involved or if her leadership was so flimsy that she was completely unaware of the potential heinous actions happening right under her nose.”

Federal law enforcement alleges that the SPLC was actively solicitingdonations under false pretenses, advertising itself to donors as anentity that fights the very extremism it was allegedly funding.

“The emails we got from MDOS may seem like a step in the right direction, but the internal conversations we’re now privy to do nothing but cement the clear relationship between Benson and the SPLC,” DeBoyer said. “The emails we obtained just begs the question: what is Secretary Benson holding back if these are the conversations she felt comfortable being public?”

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