Steve Cortes, president of the League of American Workers, addressed the recent federal indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in remarks shared during a call with Restoration News on April 28. The Department of Justice announced charges against SPLC that include 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The indictment alleges that more than $3 million in donated funds were funneled to individuals associated with violent extremist groups between 2014 and 2023, according to a Restoration News report.
The case has drawn attention to how narratives about extremism are shaped in political and media discussions. Cortes said, "Imagine a fire department that sets lots of fires, then asks for donations to fight this big fire problem. The demand for racism from the Left far exceeds the actual supply. So, what does the Left do in lieu of actual racism? It concocts it. It devises, and engineers, and gins up, and in some cases just completely lies about purported racism in American society. The corporate media, with a lot of assistance from Big Tech, was able to spread that lie far and wide, and was able to filter out and censor alternative voices who were trying to spread the truth," according to Cortes' remarks published by Restoration News.
The SPLC reported total assets of $822 million in its most recent financial disclosures. Its endowment stood at $731.9 million, composed primarily of board-designated funds intended for future work. Approximately 73.9 percent of its total expenses went toward program services during the fiscal year. These figures reflect the scale of resources managed by the group, according to its financial information.
Law enforcement agencies reported 11,679 hate crime incidents in 2024 across categories including race, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender, and gender identity. This data provides a national snapshot of bias-motivated crimes with minor fluctuations seen in prior years as reported by federal statistics.
Cortes founded the League of American Workers (LAW) in 2022 as a conservative advocacy organization focused on labor and economic policy. He previously served as senior spokesman and strategist for Donald Trump's presidential campaigns in both 2016 and 2020 and has appeared as a commentator on major news networks for over a decade. LAW conducts research and develops proposals on public policies impacting American workers and the economy.
