The Associated Press reported yesterday on the good news that the FBI is terminating its longstaninding relationship with the SPLC and the ADL. Below is an AI-produced summary of the article: 1
The Associated Press reports that FBI Director Kash Patel announced the bureau is “cutting ties” with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), following conservative complaints. Patel said the FBI would sever its relationship with the SPLC, calling it a “partisan smear machine” and criticizing its “hate map.” Earlier in the week, Patel said the FBI would end ties with the ADL, a “prominent Jewish advocacy organization that fights anti-Semitism.”
The move marks a “dramatic rethinking of longstanding FBI partnerships” with civil rights groups that have provided “research on hate crime and domestic extremism, law enforcement training and other services,” but which some conservatives say unfairly malign their viewpoints. Scrutiny intensified after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and renewed attention to the SPLC’s report, “The Year in Hate and Extremism 2024,” which described Turning Point USA as a “case study in the hard right.” Elon Musk and other figures “lambasted the SPLC” over its characterizations.
An SPLC spokesperson said the organization remains “committed to exposing hate and extremism as we work to equip communities with knowledge and defend the rights and safety of marginalized people.” The ADL, which has faced criticism on the right for its “Glossary of Extremism,” said it discontinued the glossary because some entries were outdated and some were being “intentionally misrepresented and misused.”
The ADL has historically worked closely with the FBI. Former FBI Director James Comey said in 2017: “For more than 100 years, you have advocated and fought for fairness and equality, for inclusion and acceptance. You never were indifferent or complacent.” Patel later mocked Comey on X: “James Comey wrote ‘love letters’ to the ADL and embedded FBI agents with them – a group that ran disgraceful ops spying on Americans… That era is OVER. This FBI won’t partner with political fronts masquerading as watchdogs.”
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said the ADL “has deep respect” for the FBI and, “In light of an unprecedented surge of antisemitism, we remain more committed than ever to our core purpose to protect the Jewish people.”
- All AI-produced content on Catholicism.org is clearly marked as such and is reviewed, edited, and, if necessary, corrected, by a human editor before publication (policy implemented Oct. 15, 2024). ↩
