The Southern Poverty Law Center is pushing back against a federal indictment that accuses it of defrauding donors by paying confidential informants inside extremist groups. In court filings, the civil rights organization argues that information gathered through its informant program was shared with federal law enforcement agencies and helped secure arrests and convictions of violent extremists.

According to the filings, the group’s lawyers met with prosecutors shortly before the indictment was unsealed and presented evidence that informants assisted investigations during President Donald Trump’s first term. They say the information contributed to the prosecution of a member of a white supremacist organization and provided warnings about potential violence at the 2018 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The organization also accuses senior administration officials, including the acting attorney general, of making false public statements suggesting that the government had no knowledge that informant information was shared with authorities. Defense lawyers claim prosecutors ignored thousands of pages of records turned over before the indictment and are seeking access to grand jury materials, arguing the panel may have been misled.

The case marks a sharp escalation in tensions between the Trump administration and the decades-old civil rights group, which is known for monitoring hate organizations. The law center has signaled it will mount a broad legal challenge not only to the charges but also to what it describes as a politically driven narrative surrounding its informant program.