Jim Jordan demands SPLC hand over communications with Biden admin

In the wake of the Department of Justice charging the Southern Poverty Law Center with counts that include wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan has demanded that the organization turn over all communications it had with the Biden administration.

The letter to SPLC head Bryan Fair began by noting allegations laid out in the indictment, including that the organization paid $3 million in donor funds to people associated with the Ku Klux Klan, the American Nazi Party, as well as organizers of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The letter stated, "At no point did the SPLC inform its donors that their charitable donations might be used to pay leaders of violent hate groups. To conceal the source of these payments, the SPLC allegedly opened bank accounts under the name of various fictitious entities and transferred funds from those accounts to their informants."

Citing the indictment, Jordan noted that these entities "were never incorporated, had no bona fide employees, and conducted no actual business." He added, "Rather, their sole purpose was to enable the SPLC 'as if the [informants] were receiving money from the fictitious entities rather than receiving donated funds from the SPLC to conduct financial transactions that made it appear.'"

Jordan said that the Judiciary Committee has been conducting oversight regarding the Biden administration’s "close coordination with the SPLC on federal civil rights matters." Among the things uncovered was "that an internal FBI system contained at least 13 documents, including the Richmond memorandum that labeled traditional Catholics as 'violent extremists,' that cited material from the SPLC."

"In addition, other publicly available documents revealed how the Justice Department partnered closely with the SPLC during the Biden-Harris Administration, including scheduling regular meetings, giving the SPLC early access to federal law-enforcement data, and allowing SPLC employees to train federal prosecutors.11 The new information about the SPLC alleged in the indictment only raises further questions."

Jordan requested that the committee turn over documents from January 2017 to the present "between or among any employee or agent of the SPLC and any 'field source' paid by the SPLC," and documents from that period "referring or relating to any fictitious entity the SPLC used to pay any 'field source,'" such as the Center Investigative Agency, Fox Photography, Tech Writers Group, and Rare Books Warehouse.

The letter also demands communications between when Biden took office and left it between SPLC employees and DOJ, FBI, or other executive branch employees, as well as documents to show the SPLC’s revenue and expenses beginning in 2017 to present.

The SPLC has until 5 pm on April 30 to hand over the documents.