Jordan requests Southern Poverty Law Center CEO testify amid allegations of funding extremist groups

Rep. Jim Jordan, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is requesting the CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center testify before his panel at a hearing next month, following a federal indictment alleging the group has funded violent extremist groups.

Jordan made the request in a letter Tuesday to SPLC CEO Bryan Fair explains in which he said the May 20 hearing will examine the role the SPLC had in distorting civil rights policy over the years. The letter also state that the center has labeled mainstream conservative organizations as "hate groups," which it linked to violence against them.  

A federal grand jury in Alabama on April 21 indicted the group on 11 counts of wire and bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, as the Justice Department accused the group of paying members of extremist groups to stoke hatred.

SPLC is alleged to have secretly funneled more than $3 million from 2014 to 2023 to individuals associated with violent extremist groups, including the Aryan Nations, the Ku Klux Klan and the National Socialist Party of America.

The allegations raise "questions whether the SPLC has been artificially elevating the domestic extremist threat and potentially misleading donors to the SPLC," Jordan's letter states.