Testifying under oath before the House Judiciary Committee, Southern Poverty Law Center interim CEO Bryan Fair repeatedly deflected questions from Republicans and at least one Democrat on its "confidential informant" program, citing the Justice Department's superseding indictment against the 55-year-old civil rights group for alleged donor fraud.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s conservative niece showed no such reticence at Tuesday's hearing on SPLC "manufacturing hate" by allegedly propping up white supremacist groups to exaggerate their threat and goose its donations, prompting ranking Democrat Jamie Raskin, D-Md., to warn GOP witness Alveda King that SPLC could sue her for defamation.

A colorful Christian pro-life activist, King proved the wildcard at an otherwise predictable hearing on the nature of SPLC's CI program and its practice of labeling conservative Christian organizations as "hate groups," which has made it difficult for some to participate in the financial system, while ignoring leftist groups that use violence.

King said she's been "personally flagged" by SPLC but also claimed four times she was on a "domestic terrorist" list, speculating it was due to her advocacy for life "from womb to tomb" and that "some informant must have told them I said something hateful." Much later, Fair said King's claim bewildered him because SPLC has no domestic terrorist list.

"Racism is socially engineered" but "we are one blood," said King, identified on the hearing page as chair of the American Dream at the America First Policy Institute. "SPLC is using money to stir up racism to have people fight against each other based on skin color."

She turned Raskin's question about DOJ's "slush fund" — the since-rescinded "anti-weaponization fund" for victims of Biden administration prosecutions — back on the congressman, claiming SPLC has its own slush funds. 

King even interrupted Raskin's dialogue with Georgetown law professor Mary McCord on whether any donors were truly confused by SPLC's use of informants, with Raskin lamenting that SPLC's sources were unable to stop the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

"Do you pay the same people to do the bomb and then go and comfort the people from being bombed?" King interjected. "You pay the same people to do both jobs?" Raskin asked her incredulously for evidence that SPLC aided a bombing.

"Outside agitators did bomb our house in '63 and then ran back and took off the Ku Klux Klan sheets and put on police things and ran up in the yard," King responded. "Ya'll pay both of them to do double jobs, SPLC does. You hire 'em to do the bombing, then you hire them to fix the bombing? That's weird."

Raskin again asked for evidence, reminding King she was under oath. "I'll get you some," she answered.

Won't 'recant' hate designation for Charlie Kirk

SPLC paid its CIs $4 million to "create and foment the hate they told their donors they were fighting," even paying one to stay in a white supremacist group he wanted to leave, said Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, relaying several claims in the superseding indictment. 

Perhaps most explosive, the indictment says an SPLC staffer was romantically involved with a CI in the National Alliance, paying the source $1.2 million and sharing a bank account. The group also allegedly paid a source convicted of cross-burning $19,000.

The Biden administration made SPLC "the standard" in identifying hate groups, meeting with its staff regularly and having SPLC train prosecutors, Jordan said. "Here's the scary part: It all worked" judging by SPLC's fundraising windfall after the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, with SPLC allegedly paying a CI $300,000 to get people there.

GOP lawmakers pressed Fair to answer specific allegations, with Jordan mentioning at least seven, not including SPLC's alleged shell companies. Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., asked about any foreign donations or communication.

Fair frequently responded that SPLC would speak through counsel in court or denied allegations with variations of "not to my knowledge," blaming the committee for not delaying the hearing until SPLC's prosecution was resolved.

He declined an invitation by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., to "recant" associating King and the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk with "hate groups." 

"SPLC will continue to expose hate and extremism" as documented by statements and actions, not beliefs, Fair said. Answering GOP criticisms that SPLC doesn't identify Antifa and militant abortion rights group Jane's Revenge as hate groups, Fair said they don't fit its criteria, which focus on groups that "vilify" others based on "immutable characteristics."

"So destroying pregnancy resource centers and Catholic churches would not qualify as hate under your definition? You're okay with that?" Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas, asked incredulously. "But God forbid [Kirk's] Turning Point holds a rally." He rejected Fair's claim that it doesn't target groups based on their religious beliefs.

Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., asked if SPLC told donors their money would go directly into "the hater's pocket" and buy "wood and fuel for a cross-burning." DOJ knows SPLC didn't give money to any white supremacist group, and "we believe our donors support all of our work," Fair said.

'Less vendetta, more Voltaire'

Democrats praised SPLC's historic work and ongoing value in countering "resurgent racial injustice," as Raskin put it. Its donors praise and extremists fear the group for its undercover work, which resembles FBI practices, he said: "There's nothing illegal about that." 

Responding to criticism of SPLC's "hate map," Raskin noted inflammatory language by Republicans about their opponents, such as White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller calling the Democratic Party a "domestic extremist organization." The correct response is "counterspeech," Raskin said. "We need less vendetta and more Voltaire."

Answering an earlier question about whether SPLC ever identified an Islamic group as a hate group, Raskin said his staff found six Nation of Islam chapters on its hate map.

Democratic witness McCord quoted Justice Robert Jackson's 1940 speech on the power of prosecutors to target people for "being attached to the wrong political views," accusing the Trump administration's DOJ of targeting the president's enemies. "You have no answers for our questions," Issa shot back.

Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Vice President for Strategic Initiatives Ryan Bangert urged lawmakers to look at the "broader story" of how SPLC used its hate map to "lock us out of the public square," persuading financial and technology companies to blacklist "mainstream conservatives" like ADF and make them "invisible" so there's no debate.

Congress should bar federally insured institutions from "delegating decisionmaking" to private entities who act as a "shadow censorship regime," Bangert said, comparing SPLC's role in "debanking" to the outsourced surveillance provided by abortion rights groups in the Biden administration's prosecutions of pro-life activists.

Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., gave Bangert unusual attention in the hearing, comparing SPLC's work with the FBI to Bangert's onetime role, as Texas deputy first assistant attorney general, in reporting Texas AG Ken Paxton to the FBI for allegedly using his office to help a political donor.

ADF did the same thing to SPLC, convincing interim U.S. AG Todd Blanche to "harness a criminal prosecution" to go after its enemy, Neguse alleged. "It's important for us to be candid about that."