(Headline USA) A recent report outlining the direct ties between the FBI and domestic terrorism accomplice the Southern Poverty Law Center led FBI Director Kashyap Patel to sever ties with the erstwhile civil rights organization.
Yet, questions remain as to what, exactly, the nature of that relationship was in the first place, and whether it was limited to the Biden Justice Department’s use of the SPLC to persecute political opponents or even more nefarious.
Why did the FBI have ties with SPLC in the first place? What FBI decisions have been influenced by the SPLC? pic.twitter.com/Wi2X8kwnWs
— Phil Kennedy (@PhillipAKennedy) October 3, 2025
The embattled SPLC—which restructured in 2019 after allegations of racism and sexism forced the ouster of longtime president Morris Dees—came under additional scrutiny in September following an expose by investigative journalist Tyler O’Neil.
The report focused on the SPLC’s controversial “hate map” amid reports that it had issued a de-facto “fatwa” against Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk just a few months before his Sept. 10 assassination, as Federalist CEO Sean Davis observed.
SPLC is a domestic terrorist organization that issued a fatwa against Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA earlier this year. They put a target on Charlie’s back and all but called for his assassination.
SPLC scheming also previously incited a mass shooting attempt on the Family… pic.twitter.com/pT9lu3uKbA
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) September 11, 2025
It followed recent shocking reports that the Biden DOJ, under the direction of former Attorney General Merrick Garland, had targeted TPUSA and other conservative organizations while working in coordination with the SPLC, as part of its “Arctic Frost” operation.
🔥FBI put Charlie Kirk’s turning point under probe – reports
Breitbart revealed that Charlie Kirk’s organization, Turning Point USA, was among 92 Republican groups and individuals investigated under the FBI’s secret operation “Arctic Frost.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley said… pic.twitter.com/WDfFKXR8Ty
— BiffBifford™ 🇺🇸 (@TBifford) September 17, 2025
O’Neil went even farther, linking the rebranded SPLC to Antifa, which President Donald Trump recently re-designated as a domestic terrorist organization.
Disturbing, but not surprising that @splcenter is tied to domestic terror group #Antifa. h/t @Tyler2ONeil
Bear in mind, this also puts Antifa 1 degree from the Obamas through Michelle's ex chief of staff (not the one who hired the illegal superintendent).https://t.co/Quiilc9Jtu https://t.co/8PWqfm6cJM— Ben Sellers (@realbensellers) October 2, 2025
The combination of outrageous disclosures about the group’s activities led prominent conservative influencers including Elon Musk, Jack Posobiec, Mike Cernovich and Alex Lorusso to press the FBI to cut its ties.
Hey @FBIDirectorKash, does FBI still have an active partnership with SPLC? https://t.co/0jOVYQVHVI pic.twitter.com/wyZEbBXeth
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) October 2, 2025
Patel agreed, announcing on Friday that the relationship first formally cultivated under disgraced FBI Director James Comey had come to an official close.
“The Southern Poverty Law Center long ago abandoned civil rights work and turned into a partisan smear machine,” he wrote in a post on X announcing the decision. “…That disgraceful record makes them unfit for any FBI partnership.”
We promised accountability.
Promises matter. https://t.co/dhQgNRRdTC— Dan Bongino (@FBIDDBongino) October 3, 2025
O’Neil posted another X thread recounting the process and thanking Patel for taking action.
🚨BREAKING EXCLUSIVE
The FBI under Kash Patel has formally cut all ties with the Southern Poverty Law Center
This is HUGE
🧵1/5 pic.twitter.com/MkDr0Yy7FK
— Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) October 3, 2025
But some right-wing skeptics continue to question why it took so long, while asking what else the FBI’s partnership with the SPLC may have entailed.
Indeed, it appears that the SPLC may have been a sort of prototype for the NGO model frequently used by intelligence agencies and other federal bureaucrats to circumvent legal prohibitions, including First Amendment free speech protections and Fourth Amendment privacy rights.
The SPLC’s well-documented effort to eradicate the Ku Klux Klan through litigation in the 1980s coincided with the FBI’s efforts to infiltrate the white supremacist group, which had once been a leading voice in shaping the Democratic Party platform.
That relationship appears also to have remained intact during the Clinton administration, when SPLC informants were used in the investigation of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
The FBI used the SPLC as a surveillance cutout.
“To skirt [DOJ] policies, the FBI developed a relationship with cutouts such as the SPLC that could use their own spies to do what the FBI could not." https://t.co/qlCHeT14yy pic.twitter.com/PR3hmZYzCk— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) October 4, 2025
The series of circular, incestuous interconnections spanning several decades calls to mind other recent scandals—notably the Russia-gate conspiracy, in which Comey and others used legitimate institutions such as the Washington Post and New York Times to launder false narratives devised by Hillary Clinton’s campaign operatives in order to justify their investigations into the Trump administration.
Given the SPLC’s Antifa ties, it also raises serious questions about what role the FBI may have played in the 2020 George Floyd riots and subsequent anti-government protests against the Trump administration, pointing to the likelihood of a government-led domestic color revolution that culminated in the fraudulent 2020 election.
With Comey’s recent indictment and indications that former FBI Director Christopher Wray may have been complicit in the Jan. 6, 2021 psy-op at the U.S. Capitol, the truth about decades of seditious FBI activity may soon come to light—assuming the bureau under Patel is truly willing to hold its past self accountable.
