Southern Poverty Law Center alleges DOJ is treating star witness as a member of prosecution team

Washington — Lawyers for the Southern Poverty Law Center are asking a judge to allow them to subpoena a former informant who has provided material to the Justice Department, saying that investigators are treating the witness like he is "part of the prosecutorial team itself."

Defense attorneys for the civil rights nonprofit accused the government on Wednesday of obtaining troves of documents, recordings and intelligence briefings using peculiar PowerPoint presentations from the source, known as "F-9," without a subpoena or search warrant.

Investigators typically obtain information from witnesses using subpoenas or search warrants so they can authenticate the material at trial and ensure that all relevant documents are produced. One former federal prosecutor told CBS News that obtaining evidence without taking either step, while not unheard of, was unusual — particularly with a witness like the one in this case.

In their motion to the court, they asked the judge to order the former informant to preserve all of his original documents and allow the group's lawyers to subpoena the witness themselves.

"To be clear, F-9 should have been merely a witness in this case. But the government has treated him like part of the prosecutorial team itself, choosing to allow F-9 to decide which of the documents, recordings, and photographs in his possession he will produce, and how and when he will produce them," SPLC's attorneys wrote.

"F-9 admitted that he has a 'house full of documents,' some of which he has referenced plans to 'shred.'"

The Southern Poverty Law Center has been indicted on 11 counts of wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Prosecutors alleged it defrauded its donors and duped its banks by creating shell accounts to funnel money to insiders who belonged to the same hate groups it pledged to dismantle. The SPLC has pleaded not guilty.

The government later also charged the group's former executive Heidi Beirich with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to submit false statements to a federally insured bank. She has also pleaded not guilty.

In the indictment, the government alleged that Beirich had a romantic relationship with F-9. Prosecutors described F-9 as an SPLC informant who infiltrated the Neo-Nazi group National Alliance and even once broke into its headquarters to steal documents.

According to the defense team's court filing, F-9 was staring down a potential tax prosecution for failing to pay income tax for 30 years when he began cooperating with the Justice Department.

He spoke with investigators in March 2022 when the case was still being investigated for the first time. It was subsequently closed without charges being filed. He resumed his talks with DOJ again in 2025 when the case was revived, the group's lawyers said.

"Just since November 2025, F-9 has met with the government more than

20 times — including at least four in-person meetings. He has exchanged approximately 1,800 text messages with the lead agents from the FBI and IRS," the group's lawyers wrote.

"F-9 regularly sends the government's lead FBI agent reports on how his search for evidence against the SPLC is going. He is not a lawyer, but he gave four 'Intelligence Briefings' to the government, accompanied by 162 pages of PowerPoint slides that analyze what charges the government should bring against the SPLC, describe what evidence he believes supports the charges, identify possible witnesses, and suggest new investigative directions," the filing said. 

Some of those PowerPoint slides, meanwhile, have been unintelligible.

One example included in the filing, for instance, depicts a flow chart featuring mathematical notations, with SPLC's attorneys noting: "It is entirely unclear what some of the information means."

The lawyers added that F-9 "has provided a vast number of documents and recordings, but has done so in a selective fashion, including sending clips made from secret recordings when he possesses the full recording, seemingly sending only what supports his view of the SPLC."

"At the center of this baseless investigation is an informant with every incentive to tell the government what it wants to hear. He faced possible criminal exposure, blamed the SPLC for his financial problems, and told the government a one-sided and incomplete story to score his own broad immunity which the prosecution was willing to provide," SPLC's attorneys Abbe Lowell and Addy Schmitt said in a joint statement.

"Our motion also lays out how this immunized individual is not merely a witness, but someone who is so deeply embedded in the prosecution team that he tells them what to charge and provides only the information he wants them to see."

CBS News has reached out to the Justice Department for comment.