Southern Poverty Law Center wants Todd Blanche to correct ‘false’ statements about organization
Todd Blanche, acting US attorney general, during a news conference at the Department of Justice in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, April 27, 2026. (Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Attorneys for the Southern Poverty Law Center asked a federal judge Tuesday to demand that acting Attorney General Todd Blanche issue a correction to allegedly “false” statements he made in the aftermath of the indictment of the organization last week, according to a legal filing.
In a motion to the judge presiding over their criminal case in the Middle District of Alabama, attorneys for the SPLC accuse Blanche of lying in an interview he gave to Fox News last Tuesday when he claimed the government did not have information showing the organization has shared information it learned from informants with law enforcement.
“Those statements are false,” attorneys for the SPLC wrote. “Weeks before the indictment, undersigned counsel provided information to the government demonstrating unequivocally that the SPLC had shared information from its informants with law enforcement.”
Blanche, who earlier this month replaced Pam Bondi as attorney general, announced last week that a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging the group with wire, bank fraud and money laundering offenses related to its paying of informants to infiltrate hate groups.
The attorneys write that they previously requested Blanche issue a correction to the statements but that counsel for the government refused.
They specifically cite an April 6 meeting that SPLC attorneys had with prosecutors in Alabama in which they explained in detail how some of their past cooperation with the government had resulted in an indictment of a member of a well-known extremist group.
The SPLC then sent a letter to the DOJ, which they requested it share with the grand jury, detailing six categories that they argued showed the organization using informants to dismantle white supremacist organizations, which they said undercut the core of the government’s case that argues SPLC used the informants to boost such groups.
The organization is asking the judge overseeing the case to order the disclosure of grand jury transcripts and issue a separate order restricting the government from making further “prejudicial” statements that could taint a possible jury pool.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies during a hearing of the House Committee on Ways and Means on Capitol Hill on April 16, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was pressed on cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), vaccine messaging and the firing of the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) during a hearing on Tuesday.
The hearing before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health marked the final session of four budget hearings before House lawmakers.
Research cuts
Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, D-Tex., said she was concerned about the loss of federal aid for health research in the Trump administration’s budget request for fiscal year 2027.
“Secretary Kennedy, do you understand that cutting federally funded research as this budget does, will cede U.S. leadership on biomedical research to China and create national security and global competitiveness challenges for the United States?” Fletcher asked Kennedy.
Kennedy acknowledged that he shared Fletcher’s concerns, as the biggest proposed cuts are to NIH and Administration for a Healthy America (AHA) programs.
“I don’t want to cut NIH programs, [Office of Management and Budget Director] Russ Vought doesn’t want to cut NIH programs, but we have a $35 trillion debt,” Kennedy said.
“We have been asked to cut across the board at HHS, 12% of our $100 million budget and so we’re making cuts that are painful,” he told Fletcher.
Vaccine messaging
Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Tex., described Kennedy as the most “anti-vax” figure in his lifetime. He suggested that Kennedy’s history of rhetoric denouncing vaccines is correlated with an uptick in measles cases.
Two unvaccinated school-aged children died last year from measles — the first U.S. deaths from measles in a decade.
Kennedy has long sown doubt in the safety and effectiveness of the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine. Despite being a required vaccine in all states to attend public school, rates have been steadily decreasing over the last decade, CDC data shows.
It comes as vaccine exemptions have risen sharply, with at least 138,000 kindergarteners exempt from one or more vaccines during the most recent school year, CDC data shows.
However, in recent weeks, some reports have suggested Kennedy is staying away from vaccine-skeptic rhetoric ahead of the midterm elections.
Veasey and others pressed Kennedy on whether the alleged messaging strategy was directed by the White House. Kennedy denied that it was.
“Is Susie Wiles or anyone in the White House instructing you or suggesting that you stop talking about your controversial vaccine skepticism?” Veasey asked.
“No,” Kennedy replied.
CDC leadership
Kennedy defended firing former CDC director Susan Monarez in a lengthy exchange with Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Calif.
Ruiz criticized Kennedy for ousting Monarez because she allegedly “refused” to approve what Ruiz called the dismantling of the childhood vaccination schedule.
Kennedy aggressively pushed back on the congressman’s characterization.
“That’s not true,” Kennedy said. “What she testified to wasn’t true.”
Kennedy and Monarez both appeared in front of Senate committees last year to address the ousting.
At a Senate hearing in September 2025, Monarez said she was fired by Trump and Kennedy for “holding the line on scientific integrity.”
Kennedy, in a hearing before a different Senate panel earlier that month, disputed Monarez’s version of events. He denied telling Monarez to accept vaccine recommendations without scientific evidence, and claimed she was fired in part because she told him she was untrustworthy.
During Monday’s hearing, Kennedy claimed that his reasoning for the firing had nothing to do with vaccines and that his department is committing $1 billion to vaccine research through the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute.
Ruiz claimed Kennedy’s vaccine-skeptic views run contrary to the view of President Donald Trump’s new CDC director nominee, Dr. Erica Schwartz.
During her time with the Coast Guard, Schwartz instituted a disease surveillance program and vaccination programs and wrote the first health protection policies for the force, including anthrax and smallpox vaccination policies.
Kennedy said he vetted Schwartz’s position on vaccines before she was nominated by Trump to lead the CDC. However, Kennedy said he did not speak “to the president directly” before Trump made the nomination.
Kennedy rejected the claim that his and Schwartz’s views were not aligned, but would not commit to following all recommendations of the new CDC director nominee.
“Mr. Secretary, if Dr. Schwartz is confirmed, will you commit on the record today to implement whatever vaccine guidance she issues without interference?” Ruiz asked.
“I’m not going to make that kind of commitment,” Kennedy replied.
Kennedy later repeated, as he has in his previous budget hearings, that he had a “good reason” for firing Monarez.
“I fired Susan Monarez because I asked her an outright question, ‘Are you trustworthy?’ and she said, ‘No,’ and I said, ‘Can I trust you?’ and she said, ‘No,'” Kennedy said. “That’s why she got fired, not because of her vaccine issues.”
ABC News’ Mary Kekatos contributed to this report.
In this screen grab from a video, a Kimberly-Clark warehouse burns in Ontario, Calif., April 7, 2026. (KABC)
(ONTARIO, Calif.) — A man is facing federal charges for allegedly purposely setting the fire that destroyed a massive warehouse in Southern California, prosecutors said.
Chamel Abdulkarim, 29, is charged with arson of a building used in interstate and foreign commerce and used in activities affecting interstate and foreign commerce, the Department of Justice said on Friday.
On April 7, Abdulkarim allegedly took video of himself setting fire to paper goods in the Ontario, California, distribution center, prosecutors said.
Abdulkarim allegedly said in the video, “If you’re not going to pay us enough to [expletive] live or afford to live, at least pay us enough not to do this [expletive],” the DOJ said in a statement.
The massive blaze destroyed the 1.2 million-square-foot warehouse and caused about $500 million in damage, prosecutors said. No one was injured, the Ontario Fire Department said.
In texts and phone calls, Abdulkarim allegedly said, “I just cost these [expletive] billions,” and, “All you had to do was pay us enough to live. … Didn’t see the shareholders picking up a shift,” according to prosecutors.
The suspect also allegedly posted videos on social media of him starting the fire, prosecutors said.
Abdulkarim, of Highland, California, was arrested on Tuesday on state charges and is expected to be arraigned in state court on Friday, prosecutors said.
Attorney information for Abdulkarim was not immediately available.
(SPOKANE, Wash.) — A woman was arrested last week in Spokane, Washington, after she allegedly drove up on the sidewalk and nearly hit a child who was riding their bike, police said.
In the April 28 incident, Wendy A. Clemente, 56, was caught on camera driving in her silver Ford Focus when she turned onto the sidewalk where the child was riding their bike, according to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office.
“The driver chased the juvenile on the sidewalk before reentering the roadway and leaving the area. Thankfully, the juvenile was not hit or injured,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement Monday.
Deputies began searching the area for the driver when they received a call about a reported burglary at a home about a mile away, the sheriff’s office said.
The officers found Clemente at the home and her car in the driveway, according to the sheriff’s office.
The sheriff’s office alleged Clemente denied drinking alcohol or consuming any drugs, “but later changed her story and admitted to drinking alcohol.”
The suspect was charged with 1st degree assault (attempted), DUI and 1st degree criminal trespass, according to the sheriff’s office.
On April 29, a judge ordered Clemente to be released on her own recognizance until her next court date, according to the sheriff’s office.
Attorney information for the suspect was not immediately available.
