Washington (AP) – FBI Director Kash Patel The bureau says it has severed ties with two organizations that have been tracking extremism and racial and religious bias in the country for decades.
Patel said Friday that the FBI will cut ties with the Southern Poverty Law Centerclaiming that the organization had been turned into a “partisan smear machine” and criticised the use of a “hate map” that documented allegations of anti-government and hate groups in the United States. A statement from Patel earlier in the week said the FBI Prevention Leaguea prominent Jewish advocacy organization that fights anti-Semitism.
The announcement corresponds to a dramatic rethinking of long-standing FBI partnerships with prominent civil rights groups at a time when Patel is moving rapidly to rebuild the country’s finest federal law enforcement agencies. While organizations have provided research into hate crime and domestic extremism, law enforcement training and other services, some conservatives have criticized what they say is an unfair negative impact of their perspective.
The criticism escalated after the assassination Conservative activist Charlie Kirk Among the new attention was paid to Turning Point USA, a distinctive circle of SPLC’s group founded by Kirk. For example, SPLC included a section on turning points in its report entitled “Hate and Extremism 2024,” which described the group as a “case study of hard rights.” Notable figures, including Elon Musk, Lambast SPLC this week on Kirk and the organization’s description.
A spokesman for SPLC, a law and advocacy group founded in 1971 as a minority and underprivileged advocate, did not directly address Patel’s comments in a statement Friday, but the organization has shared data with the public for decades, saying it is “working to expose hatred and extremists, equip them with knowledge and work to advocate for the rights and security of marginalized people.”
The Prevention League is also facing criticism on the right to maintain the “extremist glossary.” The organization announced this week that it has called off its glossary because many entries are outdated, some “deliberately misrepresented and misused.”
Founded in 1913 to combat anti-Semitism, ADL has long worked closely with the FBI through research and training as well as awards ceremonies that recognize law enforcement officials involved in investigating racially or religiously motivated extremism.
Former FBI Director James Comey I paid tribute to the relationship in May 2017 when I said at an ADL event:
Patel’s enemy Comey was charged last week with false statements and obstruction charges, saying he is innocent. It appeared Patel ocked Comey’s comment in a post on X on Wednesday. He shared a Fox News article cited him as having cut his relationship with ADL.
“James Comey wrote a ‘love letter’ in ADL and embedded an FBI agent. This is a group of OPS spies on Americans,” he said in a post made while preparing to begin observing Yom Kippur, the most sacred day in the Jewish calendar. “The days are over. The FBI will not partner with political aspects pose as watchdogs.
ADL spokesman did not immediately comment on Patel’s announcement on Friday, but CEO and executive director Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement Friday that ADL has “deep respect” to the FBI.
“In light of the unprecedented surge in anti-Semitism, we are more committed than ever to our core purpose of protecting Jews,” Greenblatt said.
