The spy network that took on America's Nazi groups

On NPR's Wildcard podcast, Willem Defoe is an open book. I'm a terrible liar. Aren't actors supposed to be good at lying? Yeah, maybe I'm a bad actor. Definitely sometimes.

Watch or listen to that wildcard conversation on the NPR app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is fresh air. I am Terry Gross. The Southern Poverty Law Center, the SPLC, a group known for monitoring and exposing white supremacist groups and individuals, was indicted by the Justice Department Tuesday on charges of money laundering, fraud, and false statements to banks. One of the SPLC's tactics, which was discontinued, was paying people to join hate groups

undercover, monitor the hate group's activities from the inside and, when appropriate, reporting those activities to local and national law enforcement. The indictment accuses the SPLC of using donor money to amplify hate by sending in paid undercover monitors who had to participate in some of the group's racist activities, while the SPLC also paid people who were members and leaders of hate groups to become informers. It also says the organization failed to disclose to donors that this was how their money was being used. Many critics of the Trump administration say the indictment was politically motivated.

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