According to The Independent, the Trump administration Department of Justice is allegedly investigating the SPLC. The alleged investigation is focusing on the group's past work using paid informants to infiltrate extremist groups. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Montgomery, Alabama stated, "As a matter of Department of Justice policy, we generally do not confirm, deny, or otherwise comment on the existence or non-existence of investigations." It remains unclear how or when the SPLC learned about the alleged investigation, and whether the Department of Justice is actually conducting it.
In October, the FBI cut ties with the SPLC, alleging the group had become a partisan smear machine. The group had previously provided research about hate crimes and domestic extremism to the FBI. The exact reasons or evidence behind the FBI's decision have not been publicly detailed.
These individuals risked their lives to infiltrate and inform on the activities of our nation's most radical and violent extremist groups. There is no question that what we learned from informants saved lives.
Conservatives have increasingly taken aim at the SPLC, alleging it has unfairly painted individuals on the political right as threatening extremists. The SPLC included the conservative activist Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA group on its 'Hate Map' and labeled the organization an 'anti-government extremist group' in June. SPLC CEO Bryan Fair defended the group's informant work, saying these individuals risked their lives to infiltrate and inform on the activities of our nation's most radical and violent extremist groups, and that what was learned from informants saved lives. Fair added that today the federal government has been weaponized to dismantle the rights of our nation's most vulnerable people and any organization like ours that tries to stand in the breach, and vowed the group would not be intimidated into silence or contrition. The specific details or scope of the alleged investigation into the SPLC's use of paid informants are not yet known.
Today the federal government has been weaponized to dismantle the rights of our nation's most vulnerable people and any organization like ours that tries to stand in the breach.
We will not be intimidated into silence or contrition.