SPLC releases ‘Year in Hate’ report amid House grilling over fraud indictment

(CN) — At the same moment interim CEO and President Bryan Fair testified Tuesday at a congressional hearing of the House Judiciary Committee over Southern Poverty Law Center ’s recent criminal indictment, the embattled civil rights organization released its annual “Year in Hate & Extremism Report.”

The report frames 2025 as a year in which hard-right and extremist movements successfully moved “from extreme to establishment,” with their ideas embraced and advanced by the federal government under the Trump administration and parts of the private tech sector.

The organization says this mainstreaming created conditions for white supremacy to “thrive unfettered” by exploiting politics, government institutions and private platforms.

Amid that backdrop, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Representative Jim Jordan convened a four-hour hearing bluntly named “The Southern Poverty Law Center: Manufacturing Hate, Part II.” It was the second such hearing in less than a month. On May 20, the committee heard initial testimony in a meeting lasting more than five hours.

Jordan, an Ohio Republican, noted the Department of Justice recently unsealed a superseding indictment in the case, accusing the organization of paying more than $4 million to undercover sources to “foment hate,” including to an employee who was in a romantic relationship — and shared a joint bank account — with a member of a racist organization.

Jordan criticized the SPLC for labeling non-violent groups as hate groups while ignoring violent ones.

“They created a crisis, they manufactured the crisis and by doing so, they became the standard, the source for determining who is a hate group,” Jordan said. “You run a scam, you become the standard, you don’t get prosecuted and you make a ton of money.”

But Democrat Representative Jamie Raskin characterized the SPLC as a defender of “anyone and everyone targeted for hate, violence, oppression and murder,” arguing the group is being targeted by the Trump administration as part of a broader erosion of civil rights. He said its tactics are not unusual or illegal and its donors have not been deceived.

Fair said donations have only increased since the indictment.

“We fight for the underdog, the poor, the unhoused, the hungry, the incarcerated, the disenfranchised, the immigrants, the outcast, the vilified,” he said. “We’ve never lost our North Star: a fair and just society for every person. All our programs advance that mission.”

Fair highlighted the group’s 2025 report, claiming it “chronicles how the hard right has weaponized the levers of government to weaken the political and economic power of non-whites, immigrants, women, the LGBTQ+ community, religious minorities and the poor.”

Other witnesses testified against the organization. Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and chair of the American Dream, America First Policy Institute, said the indictment was concerning and deserves “careful consideration.”

King criticized organizations that “claim to fight hatred while profiting from division,” arguing they promote manufactured racial tension and wrongly label Americans with traditional Christian beliefs. She rejected racism and white supremacy but also “the notion that Americans who hold traditional Christian beliefs should be treated as threats, or terrorists.”

Ryan Bangert of Alliance Defending Freedom argued that the SPLC has “drifted from its founding purpose” and is using its hate map to tar mainstream Christian conservative groups like his and then “mobiliz[ing] corporate America to crush the voices” of such organizations by cutting off banking, tech services and fundraising channels.

He said ADF rejects racism and that its work is grounded in the pro-life movement and opposing gender-affirming care for youth, yet SPLC branded it a hate group “solely because it disagrees with our work.”

Lawmakers were split sharply along partisan lines, using their time either to attack or defend the SPLC and the DOJ.

Republicans pressed Fair about the fraud indictment. They brought up the reported use of shell companies and donor money to “host extremist rallies.”

They claimed the SPLC actually worked to grow racist groups — buying materials for “cross burnings” and labeling organizations like Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, Turning Point USA and traditional Catholics as “hate groups,” tying those designations to de‑banking and even real-life violence.

But Democrats framed the case as part of Trump-era “weaponization” of DOJ against political enemies.

They emphasized SPLC’s cooperation with law enforcement in bringing charges against criminals and warned that undermining the organization serves white supremacists, January 6 extremists and adherents of the “great replacement” theory rather than public safety.

“These lunatics that Donald Trump unleashed back onto America’s streets are prepared to go to war for him again” California Representative Zoe Lofgren said. “They’re violent, they’re hate‑filled and they have a president who will not hold them accountable.”

The SPLC pleaded not guilty to the crimes in early May. In a statement accompanying Tuesday’s annual report, SPLC researcher Rachel Carroll Rivas said the findings are clear.

“The federal government’s targeting of Black and Brown immigrant communities was meant to send a clear message: This administration is all in on the hard-right agenda,” she said. “But there are so many less visible decisions made by this administration that leave all Americans less safe. They have intentionally ignored the very real threat posed by hard-right extremism, which is exactly why the SPLC cannot.”

Follow @gabetynes