Indicted SPLC chief faces House grilling over alleged secret payments to KKK members

The embattled leader of a left-wing nonprofit accused of secretly funneling money to members of extremist groups while publicly committing to “confronting hate” is headed for the hot seat on Capitol Hill.

Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) interim CEO and President Bryan Fair will testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday as a congressional probe into the civil rights group’s now-defunct informant practices heats up.

Fair’s anticipated testimony comes as federal prosecutors secured an 11-count indictment against the law center in April for alleged financial crimes, including defrauding its donors by concealing payments to members of extremist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, United Klans of America, the Aryan Nation and other neo-Nazi groups. 

“There are a lot of legitimate questions about what the SPLC was doing with donor money and how they were using it to basically fund the type of hate that they were pretending to be going after,” Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, told Fox News on Monday.

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House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is also probing the law center’s ties to the Biden Department of Justice on civil rights matters. The panel’s investigation predates the criminal indictment.

“For me, the biggest takeaway is the fact that the Biden White House and the Biden Justice Department helped make the Southern Poverty Law Center the standard,” Jordan told Fox News’ Sean Hannity last week. 

Republicans have sharply criticized the Biden Justice Department’s use of the nonprofit’s notorious “hate map” that targeted conservative groups, including Turning Point USA, Moms for Liberty and the Family Research Council.

“The purpose of doing that was to basically stifle their ability to get the conservative message out,” Gill told Fox News.

The Department of Justice filed a superseding indictment last week specifying that the law center covertly transferred more than $4 million in donor funds to bank accounts under fictitious names to pay members of extremist groups between 2010 and 2023. 

The nonprofit ostensibly sought to infiltrate the organizations to monitor their activities, but allegedly did not disclose the payments to donors and engaged in conduct that prosecutors say amounted to bank fraud.

The new indictment, filed in the Middle District of Alabama, also alleges that an SPLC employee paid two Klan members $1,200 per month to stay in the hate group after the unnamed individuals approached the law center in 2010 requesting help to exit.

Some of the money was allegedly used by extremist groups for recruitment purposes and for the reimbursement of expenses related to cross-burnings and Ku Klux Klan attire.

The law center has denied any wrongdoing and argued the criminal charges are politically motivated.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, SPLC counsel Abbe Lowell vigorously pushed back against fraud allegations and maintained that the law center’s informant program helped combat extremism. 

“The SPLC did not lie to its donors, it did not mislead banks it did business with, and its informant program prevented violence and saved lives,” he continued.

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Federal prosecutors allege that one informant whom the law center paid more than $270,000 helped plan the deadly 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va. 

According to the indictment, the law center directed the informant to attend the demonstration and “made racist postings under the supervision of the SPLC.”

Jordan’s panel in May subpoenaed the law center for documents related to its alleged coordination with the Biden administration and hiring members of extremist groups as “field sources.”

The law center is also under congressional scrutiny for significantly increasing its profits during the years it operated the controversial informant program.

The nonprofit’s revenue grew from $38.7 million in 2010 to more than $129 million in 2023, amounting to a 233% increase, according to the superseding indictment.

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Democratic lawmakers have slammed Republicans’ probe of the law center.

“I just think that this is really misplaced and misguided,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., told Fox News. “It’s essentially targeting an organization to make an example of them and call them out when they have been the leader in taking on antisemitism and taking on white nationalism.”

“There’s a lot of other places we should be looking at if we’re worried about organizations that spread hate, maybe start with the administration,” she added.

Alveda King, the niece of Martin Luther King Jr. and chair of the American Dream at the America First Policy Institute, and Ryan Bangert, senior vice president for strategic initiatives and special counsel to the president at Alliance Defending Freedom, are also expected to testify before the Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

Fox News Digital reached out to a spokesperson for the law center before publication.

Dan Scully contributed to this report.