Fbi Cuts Ties With Southern Poverty Law Center After Maga Push

The FBI announced Friday that it had severed ties with the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights watchdog group, after a push from MAGA allies on social media.

Elon Musk called the group — a liberal-leaning organization that has for years tracked hate groups and provided law enforcement with information about them — “an evil organization that spreads hate propaganda relentlessly” and accused it of “incitement to murder Charlie Kirk” in a series of Thursday social media posts.

“The Southern Poverty Law Center long ago abandoned civil rights work and turned into a partisan smear machine,” FBI Director Kash Patel wrote on X. “Their so-called ‘hate map’ has been used to defame mainstream Americans and even inspired violence. That disgraceful record makes them unfit for any FBI partnership.”

Patel also cited an administration-wide push to combat “anti-Christian bias” in his decision to terminate the FBI’s affiliation with the SPLC.

Conservative allies of President Donald Trump — including Musk and Turning Point USA spokesperson Andrew Kolvet — had previously called on the administration to disaffiliate from the SPLC, citing its “Hate Map” — a 25-year-old interactive initiative that displays organizations classified by the SPLC as hate groups.

The map still lists conservative group Turning Point USA, which Kirk co-founded, under the designation “Antigovernment General.” Per the SPLC’s website, the organization defines anti-government groups as “part of the antidemocratic hard-right movement.”

“For decades, we have shared data and analysis with the public to protect civil rights and hold extremists accountable,” the SPLC said in a statement. “We remain committed to exposing hate and extremism as we work to equip communities with knowledge and defend the rights and safety of marginalized people.”

The decision comes two days after the FBI severed ties with another civil rights group — the Anti-Defamation League, a pro-Israel organization that tracks antisemitism and other extremism — which had previously conducted mandatory workshops on hate crimes, violent extremism and antisemitism for new FBI agents and trainees at the agency’s Virginia academy.