SPLC Exposed: Donor Fraud, Secret Affairs, and Zero Accountability | 06-20-26
LRT Video PodcastJune 20, 20261.36 GB

SPLC Exposed: Donor Fraud, Secret Affairs, and Zero Accountability | 06-20-26

Sam Bushman and James Edwards break down the explosive DOJ indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center, alleging that a top official funneled $1.2 million in donor money to a white supremacist informant she was allegedly sleeping with. They trace the SPLC's history from its 1971 founding by Morris Dees to its nearly $1 billion in assets built on fear-based fundraising, discuss the lack of accountability across multiple scandals, and tie it to a broader pattern of unchecked institutional corruption, including the Carter Page ruling and government waste. Plus, a debate on whether Trump's White House fight night sends the wrong signal for America's 250th anniversary. Timestamps: 0:00 Intro / Liberty Roundtable opens 0:17 Sam introduces James Edwards and the SPLC topic 2:26 SPLC history: Morris Dees, 1971 founding, and the direct mail money machine 3:19 Nearly $1 billion in assets built on scaring wealthy liberals 7:38 Breaking: DOJ indictment and the $1.2 million donor money scandal 7:51 "This is a Lifetime movie" - SPLC official allegedly in an affair with informant 10:58 [Ad] Braver Angels national convention, Philadelphia, June 25-28 11:58 Bottom line: scandal after scandal, but no one goes to jail 19:32 Supreme Court shuts down Carter Page's lawsuit against James Comey 20:39 10 years, zero accountability for the Russia hoax 23:40 Closing thoughts: fire Congress, start over, God save the republic Call to Action: If you believe in accountability and fighting back against corrupt institutions, subscribe and share this episode. Catch James Edwards every Saturday night live at ThePoliticalCesspool.org, and join Sam Bushman at LibertyRoundTable.com. Don't let the truth get buried - like, comment, and make sure your friends hear this.

[00:00:04] Broadcasting live from atop the Rocky Mountains, the crossroads of the West. You are listening to the Liberty Roundtable Radio Talk Show. All right, happy to have you along my fellow American Sam Bushman. I've got James Edwards with me. ThePoliticalSussPull.org is broadcast every Saturday night live or on demand at your fingertips. ThePoliticalSussPull.org.

[00:00:28] He's also the author of a book called Racism, Schmaisism, Breaking Down the Truth about who we are, about our people, about America, about God, family, and country, and most importantly, about how to preserve our culture, ladies and gentlemen. And that's really, really, really important. And there's a group trying to destroy our culture. It's called the Southern Poverty Law Center.

[00:00:49] And for decades now, they've had kind of carte blanche access to government, police departments, the world over, really. And they were the preeminent source of truth and honor and integrity. At least that's what many believed. It was a big lie. It's been a lie for the whole time. We've tried to expose that lie for decades as well. For 30 years, I've been fighting these clowns. But more and more information is coming out to document the truth of who these people really are.

[00:01:16] They're nothing but a bunch of snake oil salesmen. They sell you on this hate map and this hate agenda that everybody's a hater except for them. But they're really having a love affair with the haters is the truth. And the truth starts now. James, welcome to the show, sir. Quite literally, as it has been alleged by the New York Post. Thank you, Sam. And believe me when I say that this story was number one with a bullet yesterday in our ranks.

[00:01:45] I've talked to a lot of people, heard from a lot of people who had seen this report, which, of course, stems from the indictment that Trump's Justice Department has levied against the Southern Poverty Law Center for alleged financial misdeeds and various other things. I could talk for hours about the Southern Poverty Law Center.

[00:02:09] A few people have had a relationship with them to the extent that, you know, you and I have going back to the very founding of my radio program. But I guess if you wanted to go back to the very founding of the Southern Poverty Law Center, you'd go back to 1971. It was founded by a guy named Morris Dees, who previously worked for George Wallace. And I think that's your first red flag.

[00:02:35] If you have somebody who, as an adult, is flipping 180 degrees from someone who was working with a Southern politician who was most well known for trying to preserve traditional values to, in the course of just about a decade, founding an organization that would work to destroy traditional American values. How does that happen?

[00:03:04] That's your first red flag. Morris Dees made a lot of money with direct mail, and he was able to couple that. And he basically just figured out that in the countercultural era of the late 60s, early 70s, there was more money to be made on the other side. And boy, did they make a lot of it. Nearly a billion dollars in assets at the Southern Poverty Law Center.

[00:03:25] Primarily generated from direct mail campaigns to wealthy liberals by scaring them into believing that the whole thing, everything that they fear, their worst nightmare is just about to happen unless, of course, they write those checks. The Southern Poverty Law Center in its early days did shut down some Klan groups and other groups.

[00:03:50] And then you fast forward, you know, decades later, and they expanded the hate map or the list of radical extremist organizations to use their terms to basically include just about everybody. I mean, we were put on it as a radio program back in the mid-2000s. Sam, you've been on it. I think you're on it as the head of about two or three different other organizations. Yeah, they tossed me on that sucker in the 90s because of my company called Liberty News Radio back in the day.

[00:04:18] And I owned a radio station that was a flagship station at the time, an AM station. And they basically said I was the largest hate group in the state of Utah. And since then, they've put me on the congressional record twice claiming that myself and you, James Edwards, are the nexus of anti-government hate in America. The only thing is I promote the proper role of government literally every single day. And I've done so for more than 30 years. I probably got more on the public record or the public eye on the proper role of limited constitutional government, the advocacy, therefore, than anybody on the planet. But other than that, I'm an anti-government hater, they claim.

[00:04:48] And I want to know who I hate. You know, I want to promote God, family, and countries, but I want to do. And I don't know if that makes me a hater. Let it stick. But it's interesting to me how that's what they pitched their agenda on. But every day we get more and more exposing. Morris Dees is out. They had a sex affair scandal not too long ago before this. They've been discredited by 20 attorney state generals. The list goes on and on.

[00:05:11] And now this scandal takes the cake on the heels of one of their attorneys was involved in a group that attacked a police training facility in Georgia. And he got caught. And then he claimed he was just there observing. And then they said, no, you're wearing the garb of the rest of the clowns that were there, too. Don't tell me that. And he got his hand caught in the cookie jar. And then now this scandal comes. And so they're taking a beating. The problem is they're so big and they have so much money. I don't know where this is going to go.

[00:05:37] The most credible people that are fighting them right now, as far as I can tell, are Matt Staver and the people over at Liberty Council are putting up a pretty good fight. But, again, these people have millions of dollars. Most of it's an overseas offshore bank account. If that doesn't tell you what the problem is, I'm not sure what does. Well, I tell you, though, I mean, there has been, you know, when we talk about the vibe shift from last year to this year with regards to Trump,

[00:06:06] there has been one hell of a vibe shift with regards to how the Southern Poverty Law Center is perceived in the public, both on the left and the right now. I mean, back 20 years ago when we were first getting attacked by them, and they would go for the jugular. I mean, they tried to kill you. I mean, they tried, I mean, you know, not literally, but they tried to take you out. They would defund you. They would make sure you didn't have credit card processing. And, man, we've suffered incredibly as a result of their harassment.

[00:06:34] And it used to be the kiss of death even 20 years ago. If the Southern Poverty Law Center was coming after you, very few people survived it. We did. We did. But a lot of people didn't. A lot of people were very fearful of them. And now, you know, you fast forward to where we are today, and you have sitting Republican congressmen, you know, grilling the SPLC in congressional hearings saying, can you please put me on your hate list? I want to be included in that company. I want, you know, so this was the things we were saying 20 years ago. Now you have sitting members of Congress doing it.

[00:07:02] But anyway, that's sort of a background. I'm sure a lot of people already know about a lot of that. But what's happening now is in this latest development, it just really takes the cake. Of course, a couple of months ago, Trump's Justice Department, the Department of Justice, came out with this indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center, as I mentioned, very serious. And we'll see where that goes.

[00:07:25] But now as a result of that, you have more news coming out that, well, I'll just read it. I mean, this is the New York Post reporting yesterday, sort of breaking this story. A top Southern Poverty Law Center official is accused of helping to funnel $1.2 million in donor money to an informant in the National Alliance White Supremacist Group, who was also allegedly her lover. I mean, this is a lifetime movie.

[00:07:53] This is something like, you know, a forbidden romance. You know, it's the SPLC sleeping with their informants. I mean, what are you even, what is this? The Department of Justice filed an indictment against the SPLC, accusing it of funneling donor cash to hate groups. They were then telling donors they were fighting. And it goes on to say that they're saying that it sounds like Heidi Byrick was one of the big three,

[00:08:20] part of this three-headed hydra at the SPLC when it was at its most dangerous with Morris Dees and Mark Potok, Heidi Byrick going back to the mid-2000s, you know, into the better part of the last decade. But it's being alleged now that she was in a romantic relationship with one of these informants. And during this relationship, they allegedly shared a house and two bank accounts.

[00:08:43] So what you have here is this isn't something where they were just paying for moles to go in and in some cases steal property and get names and lists that they would then use to go after people and get them fired from their jobs, you know, all sorts of economic and, you know, I call it financial terrorism, to be honest with you.

[00:09:06] But it wasn't just that they were hiring, you know, paying moles to go in and steal property and infiltrate and get information that they could use to target other people and destroy their lives. And that's bad enough. But what they were apparently doing, according to these reports and this indictment,

[00:09:25] is paying people of fringe groups money to keep these organizations going that would have otherwise died due to lack of support and then using these organizations as a ruse to further fundraise. And by the way, now according to the New York Post, they were sleeping with the so-called extremist and white supremacists that they were supposed to be fighting.

[00:09:53] I mean, literally having a illicit sexual affairs. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer? Sleeping with the enemy. That's another movie. I think it was back in the 90s. I mean, it's just beyond the pale. And here's the problem. They're trying to act like, oh, we just had to, you know, infiltrate them and this and that. But when you prop them up, when you sleep with them, when you're involved with them, when you're, okay, this isn't the first sexual scandal they've had either. And when you have them attacking police departments, training facilities for cops,

[00:10:23] when you have them attacking everybody under the sun, literally based on their rhetoric and their agenda and their hate map, you've had literally people go in and try to shoot up locations. That's happened. And we go on and on and on and on. Here's my question. Why are we just talking about this? Why aren't people in prison? How come this isn't way down the road? It might be. 20-plus attorneys general already said they're a scam group. And now congressmen and senators want to be on their hate list? I see nothing but talk, James.

[00:10:51] We'll talk about it in Skins Liberty Roundtable Live. What does it mean to be an American? 250 years ago, our founders pledged to each other their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor in pursuit of liberty and self-government. Now, on America's 250th anniversary, you're invited to join fellow citizens in Philadelphia for a historic gathering dedicated to renewing that spirit.

[00:11:17] From June 25th through June 28th, 2026, Braver Angels presents its national convention. This is more than a convention. It's a call to courageous citizenship. Join Americans from every background and walk of life as we learn to listen better, engage respectfully, build trust across differences, and strengthen the bonds that hold our nation together. Whether you're concerned about the future of our country or simply looking for ways to make a positive difference, this event is for you.

[00:11:44] Register today at braverangels.org slash convention. All right, the bottom line with the Southern Poverty Law Center, ladies and gentlemen, is this. They say this unfolding case draws attention to potential exploitation of donor funds. And the need for accountability.

[00:12:15] I'm just saying we're to the point where it's like, oh, we realize there's a big problem. We're going to tell you there's a big problem. We're going to tell you there's a scandal here. But look, these people have had scandal after scandal after scandal, folks. They've been discredited by 20 plus state attorneys general. They've been discredited by all kinds of people, all kinds of places in the media and everywhere else for sexual scandals, for racial scandals, for hate themselves, for partnering with and sleeping with the enemy and everything else. But no one's going to jail.

[00:12:45] It's just going to be a big old flash in the pan. It's kind of like in the 90s. They're like, oh, the IRS is bad. Nobody got harmed. Nothing happened. The IRS just continues to gain power. They can even basically leak records on the president and get away with it, really. Pay a big old fine that then does what? Now we're not even going to use that money to protect innocent victims. That's shut down, gone down in flames. And so at the end of the day, I don't see any accountability here, James, at all. I know they're talking about it, but I don't see it. We'll see where this indictment goes.

[00:13:11] I mean, you know, at least the fact that the DOJ is going after them in a very real way is something that we haven't seen before. So let's see how this plays out and if it's just going to be civil penalties and they pay some sort of restitution in the, you know, nine figures or whatever, and then they're allowed to go on about their work. But I just, I mean, yes, I mean, you are right. Do you think Heidi will be Gislaine's cellmate, James? And just kind of hang out in Texas and just a posh, chill prison camp, hang out,

[00:13:38] have a good time, do your nails and get three meals a day and that kind of stuff? Well, I've seen, I've seen Gislaine walking around like a caged tiger in her cell. I don't know how well she's living, but I don't know if they're going to go to prison. She's living high on the hog, buddy. I don't know if they're going to go to prison. Yeah, no, of course not. Well, I'll tell you, Heidi Byrick's career is probably finished as a result of this. Now, she left the Southern Poverty Law Center because, as you said before, she's got to write a book about her love affair and she'll be a rock star, buddy.

[00:14:06] Well, I mean, how many millions of dollars do you need before you can live comfortably? I mean, now that she's in her later years in life, Morris Dees is pushing 90 now. Well, when a McDonald's burger costs six bucks and it doesn't have any meat on it, hey, it costs a lot of money there, buddy. All right, I want to move to this fight at the White House, James, too, because I think it relates. We've created a culture where there's zero accountability. I have a problem with this fight at the White House thing.

[00:14:30] In an event like anything seen before, I guess they had this big old fight, this martial arts fight at the White House, and there was a scandal where the FBI had to stop people from trying to create a slaughter at the event. That's a whole sideshow. But at the end of the day, Trump is doing this, and I don't have a problem with boxing. I don't have a problem with mixed martial arts. I have no problem with those sports.

[00:14:55] My problem is to celebrate that as America's 250, while we're trying to sign peace deals all around the world, while we're trying to set the stage for the next 250 years in America, and we want peace and prosperity and stability and safety and et cetera, to have this kind of an event at the White House where there's children present and everything else, having it government-led, so to speak, smacks to me of kind of a blood sport

[00:15:22] that we're starting to hit kind of the Rome days of violence and blood and sport and whatever. And I know you would say, Sam, we haven't gone near that far. I know. But where does it start? Where does it end? And so to me, it's a big mistake to have this. Let's watch this video. This guy basically, after he won, spoke. And he said some crazy, interesting things. Let's watch this, and then James will respond. Hey, shout out to Trump for having the balls that puts the **** like this on.

[00:15:49] And if I'm going to say anything, there's only one person more incredible than the Incredible Hulk, and that's my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now listen, Alex Pereira, I want a shama on your mama.

[00:16:15] Lastly, Michelle Obama is a man. Ladies and gentlemen, Josh Hulkin. All right, there you have it. Joe Rogan did that. But now they say Obama's a man, and I wonder if they're afraid Obama might run in 2008. I'm sorry, 2028, and this might derail that. What do you think of all that, though, James? Very strange stuff, the whole thing.

[00:16:43] Well, I would agree that that particular installment of all of the activities that are going on out in front of the White House might not have been the best foot forward. And when you let people like that have a mic, you never know what they're going to say in the moment when the adrenaline is flowing and he's trying to get a laugh or trying to get a rise out of the crowd. I don't know if that was scripted or if that was just impromptu stuff, this guy. I don't even know who he was. Obviously, UFC fighter. I think it was done intentionally to make sure there's a big question about Obama. Possibly.

[00:17:13] Possibly. But it's part of a bigger sort of carnival-like, you know, 250th anniversary state fair that the Trump administration is putting on. So if it was just the UFC fighting, you know, then we could talk about that. But this was just one of many, many different exhibitions that have been going on there the last few days and will continue to go on through July.

[00:17:38] They're going to be having concerts, although a lot of these singers backed out, you know, at the first sign of any bad press. But there have been sort of motorbikes, stunt bikes, exhibitions. There's been all kinds of different sporting events and speeches. And there's going to be some concerts still, presumably. So it's a big sort of, you know, festival that has a lot of different things that Americans like to see. And this was part of it.

[00:18:05] But now, again, if you're just focusing on this with laser-like vision, like, well, what does that make? You know, why is he having a UFC fight outside of the White House? But it is part of this whole month-long sort of celebration of America with a lot of different events. A little like a circus-like atmosphere. No, hey, there's a time and a place for it. But the country leading that smacks of Rome, buddy. I can see why you would make that, draw that comparison. You know, certainly no doubt. But, you know, as far as the things that we've got to be concerned with, it isn't too high on my list.

[00:18:34] But, yeah, I don't know. Pretty soon, I don't know if they might start throwing kids in the ring with the lions. And, you know, I don't know what will happen. But I'm just telling you right now, to me, it's a bad president. I don't know why the government would spend, I don't know how much money that cost the taxpayers for security and everything else. But it was an expensive proposition, to say the least. And, you know, it's just another, again, issue to divide. And I don't see the value in that right now. When Trump needs all the support he can get to do that, it makes guys like me go, man, is this smart?

[00:19:04] Is this wise? So I agree it's not the end of the world, but it is an event unlike any other that's ever been seen before at the White House. And we're going into uncharted territory, and we don't know where the public stands on it. That's a mistake alone before the midterms, whether it's fine or not, right? Trump's a showman. Above all, he's a showman. And he's always going to be putting on a show. So this is just a part and parcel with, you know, the package you get with Trump, whether he's a businessman, a celebrity, or a president. I mean, it's all going to be baked into the cake. All right.

[00:19:31] Before the end of the hour, Carter Page got shut down. The Supreme Court now has rejected Carter Page's deal to try to reinstate his lawsuit against ex-FBI director James Comey because of the wrongful surveillance that took place during the 2016 scandals. It was the Russia interference scandal. We've never had accountability for those who perpetrated that scam literally, James, a decade ago. Carter Page just lost his lawsuit.

[00:20:00] So it's going, you know, 10 years. We don't have anybody in jail, any accountability really for the Russian hoax that went against a sitting or I'm sorry, a sitting president partnering with a candidate. So Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton going against a candidate and then eventually the president, despite previously being granted $1.25 million settlement, Carter Page got shut down. So this is why I say there's just no accountability, James. They say this decision effectively ends.

[00:20:29] Page's, quote, legal battle against government officials. So there's just no accountability anywhere. Well, I mean, you're talking about Carter Page, who was a Trump aide, and he had brought this lawsuit against James Comey, the former FBI director for wiretapping. Wiretapping.

[00:20:50] But, yeah, I mean, if it has to go to the point where the Supreme Court is your last hope, you really don't have much hope because they take, what, 1% or less of all cases that are presented to them. Yeah. And it's 10 years already in the making. I mean, it's old hat. Nobody cares. My point, though, is you can pull off a scandal like that where you can lie about Russians and international intrigue when it doesn't exist. You can have a president involved. You can have a candidate involved against another candidate and eventually against the president of the United States. You can sick the IRS after him. You can do all this stuff.

[00:21:19] And virtually there's zero accountability for it. And I don't see anything coming either. Well, you know, I'm a little bit cynical and jaded and numb to the judicial process after my time as plaintiff. I wonder why, James. So when something like this happens, I just said, well, you know, what does anyone expect? You know, move on to the next thing. Although the Supreme Court has ruled well on some political issues.

[00:21:43] When it comes to individuals seeking recourse against misdeeds by the media or the government or whatever, I mean, that's a tougher thing. And now the government's worried that they don't even have the ability to find out when they pay out tax dollars. They don't have the ability to find out who's on the no-received tax dollars list. So they're sending people tax dollars, in other words, government money, who are on a list saying they shouldn't get any government money. But the right hand can't communicate with the left hand and know what they're doing, so they can't stop it.

[00:22:12] I've got one way to stop it. Shut down all your socialist government programs and quit handing out my money. Quit stealing my money. Robbing Peter to pay Paul. Stop it. But yet, that's going to continue unabated as well, right? You're about to trigger me, Sam, because as anyone who has to pay quarterly taxes knows, the second quarter taxes were due last week. Get on it, James. And I'm just sending my check. I hope they spend it wisely. I'm sure they will. No, they will not. They'll send it to people who they promise won't get any money.

[00:22:42] They have no way to know, James. Yeah. I don't. It's every time. I always send it certified so that, you know, they have to get it. And the, you know, when the post office clerk asked me if there's anything fragile, liquid, or perishable in the envelope, I just said, the only harm it's going to be done is to me when they cash it. Because it's, you know, addressed to the IRS. Amen to that. And so, folks, I don't mean to be cynical and negative, but I think we just need to fire the whole of Congress.

[00:23:10] They've already kicked out the people that I thought were the best that were there now. Yeah. So now let's just get rid of everybody, James. Just shut it down. Start anew. Now we're talking. Replace every single one of these clowns. Now you're talking revolutionary, Sam, that this does get back to our 250 degrees. No, I'm talking about peacefully replacing everyone. And that's the voting process that we have at our fingertips. And I pray that it goes peaceful, ladies and gentlemen. But listen to this song and tell me what you think, man. And it tells the story like nobody's business. I'm Sam Bushman. He's James Edwards. The political cesspool.org.

[00:23:40] God save our constitutional republic. Can you try? Yes, it is, ladies and gentlemen.