A new Justice Department report has revealed that the FBI cited the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) more than 22,000 times in its internal systems, often without the caveats required by bureau policy, even as questions about the SPLC's reliability persisted within the agency.

The report's findings highlight concerns about the FBI's reliance on advocacy organizations with contested credibility and the agency's adherence to its own standards for source evaluation.

The controversy centers on the FBI Richmond Field Office's January 2023 memo, which alleged that "racially-motivated violent extremists" were seeking to recruit "radical traditional Catholics." The memo cited the SPLC as a source without any warnings about its credibility, despite FBI policy requiring such caveats. The SPLC has stated it "did not provide any information or communicate with any FBI personnel involved in preparing this Richmond Field Office memo."

Internal Reviews and FBI Practices

The FBI retracted the Richmond memo one day after it leaked. A subsequent Analytic Tradecraft Review faulted the memo for failing to "provide any details regarding any potential bias/credibility of the sources, including concerning SPLC." The review noted that while the SPLC is a central resource for hate crime data, it has a history of issuing apologies and retracting its designations of extremist or hate groups.

The tradecraft review specifically criticized the memo's lack of scrutiny when reporting on a religious group the SPLC had identified as a hate group. It stated that "there should have been extra care to caveat the information, which was more subjective than statistical, and examine SPLC’s threshold for determining a hate group and explain how it aligns or differs from the FBI’s definition."

A March 1, 2023, email detailed that a search of the FBI's Sentinel case management system found 9,040 references to "SPLC" and 13,250 to "Southern Poverty Law Center," indicating a substantial footprint. The analyst identified at least 12 reports from January 2022 to January 2023 that cited the SPLC without any caveated language, though the total number of reports reviewed was not specified.

The email also revealed that more than two dozen FBI employees viewed the Richmond memo before it leaked, yet none raised concerns about the uncaveated SPLC citations. Despite directives to admonish the memo's authors, Richmond FBI leadership instead gave them positive performance reviews.

Questions Over SPLC’s Credibility

The SPLC, once known for legal action against the Ku Klux Klan and monitoring white supremacist groups, now faces federal fraud and conspiracy charges related to its paid-informant program. The Justice Department alleges the SPLC used this program to exaggerate the prevalence of hate groups, a criticism echoed by those who argue the SPLC places mainstream conservative and Christian organizations on its "hate map" alongside extremist groups.

The SPLC maintains that its map reveals the infrastructure supporting white supremacy. However, even some left-leaning critics, such as former ACLU President Nadine Strossen, have defended organizations the SPLC labels as hate groups.

"The church is very clear that same-sex sexual acts are intrinsically disordered and can never be morally acceptable."

— Jennifer Roback Morse, Ruth Institute founder

In one example, the SPLC cited a statement from Jennifer Roback Morse, founder of the conservative Ruth Institute, as evidence of hate. The statement, however, is drawn directly from the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

FBI Response and Ongoing Scrutiny

Last year, FBI Director Kash Patel told the Daily Signal that he had severed the bureau’s ties to the SPLC, calling it a "partisan smear machine" that uses a "hate map" to defame Americans and inspire violence. The newly released documents underscore the extent of the FBI's previous reliance on the SPLC and the lack of internal scrutiny applied to its information.

The Justice Department's report and internal emails do not specify how widespread the practice of uncaveated SPLC citations was across the bureau, but they indicate that the issue extended beyond the Richmond memo. The Daily Signal reached out to Stanley Meador, former Richmond Special Agent in Charge and now Virginia's secretary of public safety and homeland security, for comment; he did not respond by publication time.

The SPLC, in its public statements, has denied direct involvement in the Richmond memo and continues to defend its work monitoring hate groups. The organization has not addressed the Justice Department's latest findings regarding its citations in FBI reports.