by Misty Severi
House Judiciary Republicans confirmed Wednesday night that Southern Poverty Law Center CEO Bryan Fair will testify in front of the committee next month regarding allegations it funded elements of extremist and racist groups.
Fair currently serves as interim president and CEO of the SPLC. A longtime board chair and constitutional law professor at the University of Alabama School of Law, Fair stepped into the role in July 2025 after former CEO Margaret Huang resigned to focus on family matters.
His appointment marks the latest chapter in the organization’s leadership churn. The group has cycled through multiple top executives in recent years following internal turmoil, including the 2019 ouster of co-founder Morris Dees amid accusations of sexual harassment and racial discrimination within the ranks.
For decades, the SPLC has positioned itself as the nation’s preeminent watchdog, which maintained a controversial “Hate Map” that increasingly labeled benign conservative organizations and religious groups as hate groups.
But a recent federal indictment returned by a grand jury suggests the organization was playing a double game by allegedly manufacturing the very extremism it claimed to be fighting to keep its fundraising machine humming.
In all, the organization is charged with 11 counts, including six counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. Prosecutors allege that between 2014 and 2023 the organization secretly funneled more than $3 million in donor funds to individuals tied to violent extremist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, National Socialist Party of America, and others.
The scheme allegedly involved covert payments to informants and associates who infiltrated or led these groups, all while the SPLC raised hundreds of millions by promising donors it would dismantle the very extremism it helped sustain.
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan invited Fair to testify in front of the panel in June. He also subpoenaed the organization for documents about its alleged coordination with the Biden-Harris Administration and funding of extremists.
The hearing will take place on June 9 at 10 a.m. Eastern.
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Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage. Executive Editor of The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network Christina Botteri contributed to this report.
Photo “Rep Jim Jordan, House Judiciary Committee Chair” by House Judiciary Committee.
