The Southern Poverty Law Center spent decades branding conservative and Christian groups as hate. On Tuesday its own leadership was the one answering questions under oath.

SPLC interim CEO and President Bryan Fair testified before the House Judiciary Committee at a hearing titled “The Southern Poverty Law Center: Manufacturing Hate, Part II.”

The hearing landed less than two months after a federal grand jury in Montgomery, Alabama, returned an indictment charging the SPLC organization with 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.

Fox News reported that prosecutors secured a superseding indictment in June alleging more than $4 million in donor funds moved through accounts under fictitious names to pay members of extremist groups between 2010 and 2023.

House Judiciary Republicans put the contrast bluntly as the hearing got underway.

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The House Judiciary Committee described the hearing and witness panel this way:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. ET.

The hearing, “The Southern Poverty Law Center: Manufacturing Hate, Part II” will examine the role that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has played in distorting civil rights policy in recent years.

Additionally, the hearing will explore recently released information revealing that the SPLC has funneled money to some extremists, raising questions whether the SPLC has been artificially elevating the domestic extremist threat and misleading its donors.

WITNESSES: Mr. Bryan Fair, Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, Southern Poverty Law Center; Dr. Alveda King, Chair of the American Dream, America First Policy Institute; Mr. Ryan Bangert, Senior Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Special Counsel to the President, Alliance Defending Freedom.

The Committee on the Judiciary is pleased that you have agreed to provide testimony at a hearing entitled “The Southern Poverty Law Center: Manufacturing Hate, Part II” on June 9, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. in room 2141 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

The heart of the accountability fight is the indictment, and the language from federal officials was not soft.

The Justice Department announced the April charges with this allegation:

Between 2014 and 2023, the SPLC secretly funneled more than $3 million in donated funds to individuals who were associated with various violent extremist groups including the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, and National Socialist Party of America.

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A Grand Jury in Montgomery, Alabama, today returned an indictment charging the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) with 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Alabama Northern Division filed two forfeiture actions to recover alleged proceeds of the organization’s fraud scheme. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigated this case with assistance from the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI).

“The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “Using donor money to allegedly profit off Klansmen cannot go unchecked.”

“This Department of Justice will hold the SPLC and every other fraudulent organization operating with the same deceptive playbook accountable. No entity is above the law.”

“The SPLC allegedly engaged in a massive fraud operation to deceive their donors, enrich themselves, and hide their deceptive operations from the public,” said FBI Director Kash Patel.

“They lied to their donors, vowing to dismantle violent extremist groups, and actually turned around and paid the leaders of these very extremist groups – even utilizing the funds to have these groups facilitate the commission of state and federal crimes.”

“That is illegal – and this is an ongoing investigation against all individuals involved.”

According to the indictment starting in the 1980s, the SPLC began operating a covert network of individuals who were either associated with violent and extremist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, or who had infiltrated violent extremist groups at the SPLC’s direction.

Unbeknownst to donors, some of their donated money was being used to fund the leaders and organizers of racist groups at the same time that the SPLC was denouncing the same groups on its website.

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The details contained in the civil forfeiture complaint are allegations only.

These are allegations. The SPLC has denied wrongdoing, there has been no conviction, and the indictment itself does not prove the claims in court.

SPLC counsel Abbe Lowell told Fox News the organization did not lie to donors or mislead banks, and argued its informant program prevented violence and saved lives.

Republicans on the committee said the testimony did not hold up under questioning.

Chairman Jim Jordan has also made clear the committee’s interest is broader than the criminal indictment.

Chairman Jim Jordan wrote to Fair on May 20 after the committee said SPLC did not provide the requested records:

The Committee is in receipt of your letter dated April 30, 2026, regarding our request for documents related to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) use of members of extremist groups as “field sources” and close collaboration with the Biden-Harris Administration.

Your response failed to include a single responsive document and misrepresented both the timeline and purpose of the Committee’s oversight. Accordingly, the Committee has invoked compulsory process to obtain the requested materials.

To be clear, although the indictment disclosed new information relevant to the Committee’s oversight, that oversight did not arise from the indictment, contrary to your suggestion.

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The Committee’s request to the SPLC clearly serves a legitimate legislative purpose-a fact your letter does not contest-because it concerns a subject “on which legislation could be had.”

In light of the SPLC’s close coordination with the Biden-Harris Administration on civil rights matters, the Committee may consider legislative reforms addressing the ability of the Department of Justice to rely on non-governmental organizations in carrying out its law enforcement responsibilities.

Nothing in the Committee’s correspondence with the SPLC reflects a determination regarding the merits of the allegations in the indictment. The Committee issued a narrow request for information necessary to carry out its legislative responsibilities.

Accordingly, the Committee is initiating compulsory process to obtain the documents and material needed to fulfill its oversight and legislative obligations.

The committee also pressed the SPLC on the credibility of its so-called hate map, the list that has long swept in mainstream conservative and Christian organizations.

For years the SPLC’s labels were treated as gospel by reporters, tech platforms, and government agencies deciding who counted as dangerous.

Now the group that built an empire calling other people hateful is the one explaining itself to Congress and in federal court.

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

 

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