FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The Department of Justice under President Joe Biden consulted with the Southern Poverty Law Center, a leftist activist group notorious for comparing mainstream conservatives and Christians to the Ku Klux Klan, and Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, formally asked Attorney General Pam Bondi for all related documents.
“The committee is continuing to investigate the Biden-Harris Department of Justice’s and Federal Bureau of Investigation’s weaponization of federal law-enforcement resources against conservative Americans,” Jordan wrote in the Tuesday letter exclusively provided to The Daily Signal.
The Ohio Republican congressman noted that “the DOJ, during Attorney General Merrick Garland’s tenure, colluded with the radical, left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center on matters relating to federal civil rights enforcement.”
“The extent of the SPLC’s influence over our nation’s federal law enforcement during the Biden-Harris administration is deeply concerning, and we respectfully request additional information on this matter,” Jordan added.
A Close Relationship
The letter cites multiple documents obtained by America First Legal showing that the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division partnered with the SPLC “including scheduling regular meetings, giving the SPLC early access to federal law-enforcement data, and also allowing SPLC employees to train DOJ prosecutors.” Among other things, the DOJ cited the SPLC in a memo targeting “radical traditional Catholics,” and then-Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke met with SPLC staff repeatedly.
“The SPLC routinely maligns conservative and religious organizations, such as Turning Point USA, Family Research Council, and Moms for Liberty, as ‘hate’ groups simply because the SPLC disagrees with their views,” the letter adds.
“The fact that the Biden-Harris DOJ would foster a close relationship with the SPLC, knowing its biased political ideology, is concerning and just more evidence of the Biden-Harris administration’s weaponization of the federal government against certain Americans.”
The letter asks Bondi to hand over all documents relating to interaction between the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division and the SPLC; all documents and communications relating to meetings or trainings involving the SPLC and the division; all documents relating to funds the division used to coordinate meetings, conduct trainings, and schedule events with the SPLC; and all documents relating to the DOJ’s use of SPLC material. The committee requests all documents between Jan. 20, 2021 and Jan. 20, 2025.
The SPLC
The SPLC has faced renewed scrutiny after the assassination of Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10. The SPLC gained its reputation by suing Ku Klux Klan groups into bankruptcy, and it now publishes a “hate map” the includes conservative and Christian groups alongside Klan chapters. The SPLC added Turning Point USA, Kirk’s organization, to the “hate map” in May.
In 2012, a terrorist used the “hate map” to target the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian nonprofit in Washington, D.C.
The SPLC condemned both the Kirk assassination and the attack on FRC, but it has kept both groups on the “hate map.”
Last month, FBI Director Kash Patel announced that the bureau had formally severed all ties with the SPLC, which he called a “partisan smear machine.”
Big Tech companies used the SPLC to police content on their platforms, but the companies have distanced themselves from the group in the wake of Kirk’s assassination. Some companies use the SPLC to screen potential nonprofit recipients of employee matching grants, but companies are beginning to cease this practice.
The SPLC fired its co-founder, Morris Dees, amid a racial discrimination and sexual harassment scandal in 2019. During that scandal, the SPLC unionized. After a round of layoffs last year, the SPLC Union demanded the ouster of then-President Margaret Huang, and she departed from the nonprofit earlier this year.
Rep. James Comer, who heads the House Oversight Committee, has announced investigations into the dark money infrastructure of the Left, particularly looking into ActBlue.
Jordan’s letter asks Bondi to send the documents by Dec. 9.
