The House Judiciary Committee has invited the Southern Poverty Law Center to testify at a hearing on its role in “distorting federal civil rights policy in recent years.”
Committee Chairman Jim Jordan asked Bryan Fair, the center’s interim president, to testify at the May 20 hearing, citing the federal indictment issued last week charging the Alabama-based organization with 11 counts of bank fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The indictment accuses the SPLC of paying more than $3 million from 2014-23 to members of White-supremacist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan and the Nazi Party of America, to act as informants.
“Recently released information reveals that the SPLC has funneled money to some extremists, raising questions whether the SPLC has been artificially elevating the domestic extremist threat and potentially misleading donors to the SPLC,” Mr. Jordan, Ohio Republican, said in Tuesday in a letter.
He asked Mr. Fair to respond to the request by May 5. The Washington Times has reached out to the SPLC for comment.
The center filed motions Tuesday in federal court in Alabama challenging the claim that the Justice Department was unaware of the use of paid informants.
“The Department of Justice is well aware that the SPLC provided helpful information, through the use of its confidential informants, to law enforcement,” the center said in its filing. “The Department of Justice also knows that these confidential informants helped law enforcement put violent extremists in jail.”
Mr. Fair said in a video posted hours before the April 21 indictment was issued that the informants were used to protect the center and others against violent extremists.
“Taking on violent hate and extremist groups is among the most dangerous work there is, and we believe it is also among the most important work we do,” Mr. Fair said. “To be clear, this program saved lives.”
Republicans accused the center of fomenting the hate it purports to fight by funneling money through fake bank accounts to members of extremist groups, including an unnamed individual involved in organizing the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Mr. Jordan noted that the center is known for its “hate map,” which lumps mainstream conservative groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom and Moms for Liberty with fringe racist groups like the KKK.
“Although the SPLC started with the commendable goal of providing pro bono legal services to indigent defendants, it has shifted in recent times to focusing on an ever-evolving, highly partisan understanding of ‘hate,’” Mr. Jordan said in the letter. “The SPLC has labeled some mainstream conservative groups as so-called ‘hate groups’ based solely upon the group’s conservative or Christian ideology.”
They include the Family Research Council, which was attacked by a gunman in 2012 who shot and injured a security guard. The shooter later said he read about the council on the SPLC website.
Mr. Jordan also cited the FBI Richmond field office’s 2023 memo targeting “racial-traditionalist Catholics,” which cited the center as a source.
The 55-year-old center drew renown for bankrupting the KKK through litigation, but has since been criticized for its aggressive fundraising. It was rocked by allegations of employee harassment and discrimination, which led to the firing of co-founder Morris Dees in 2019.
