Emily Jashinsky

Founded in Montgomery, Alabama in 1971, the SPLC began as a non-profit civil rights law firm known for bringing cases against the KKK and other white supremacist organizations.

But in more recent years, the group branding conservative and libertarian groups like Moms for Liberty as anti-government and placing Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA on its hate map alongside the KKK and other extremist groups.

The hearing, coming after a federal grand jury in Alabama indicted the SPLC last month on 11 criminal counts, including wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.

According to the DOJ, the SPLC allegedly used more than $3 million in donated funds between 2014 and 2023 to pay individuals associated with violent extremist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, and neo-Nazi organizations, to allegedly act as informants.

Prosecutors alleging the group concealed those payments through fake entities and misled donors about how their money was being used.

One of the central examples raised in the hearing was Charlottesville, where prosecutors say an SPLC-paid field source was involved in helping plan and promote the 2017 Unite the Right rally that led to one death and ignited years of national debate over extremism and political violence.

In yesterday's House Judiciary hearing, Chairman Jim Jordan arguing Charlottesville was not an isolated example, but part of a broader SPLC model, paying sources inside extremist movements, amplifying the threat those movements posed, and then converting the fear into donations.

Ranking member Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, accusing the Trump DOJ of criminalizing what he says was a lawful informant program.

Witness and senior editor at The Daily Signal, Tyler O'Neill, testifying the SPLC was built on a fundraising model that once targeted the KKK, but later required the group to keep expanding its definition of hate to keep donor money flowing.

The SPLC denies any wrongdoing, pleading not guilty earlier this month to the DOJ charges, with the case now set to go to trial in October.

Coming up, billionaire Jeff Bezos taking on the Tax the Rich movement, AI fears President Trump and New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani in a wide-ranging CNBC interview, and James Murdoch, once heir to the Fox News empire, now buying up major liberal media brands.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos sitting for a wide-ranging CNBC interview, weighing in on everything from President Trump, Zoran Mamdani, and AI.

One of the most striking moments coming when Bezos, one of the richest men in the world, argued the bottom half of American earners should stop paying federal taxes altogether.

Bezos rejecting the idea that simply taxing billionaires more will solve the economic woes working Americans face, arguing the country is not struggling with a revenue problem, but a spending problem.

To illustrate the point, Bezos pointed to New York City schools, arguing the government is already spending massive amounts of money, but not managing it well.

Bezos also applying the same argument to Amazon workers, pushing back on the idea that the problem is simply low corporate pay.

Bezos also asked about a video posted last month by New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani, the far-left progressive who has made taxing the wealthy central to his agenda.

In the video, Mamdani stands outside billionaire Ken Griffin's home announcing a proposed new tax on second homes in the city worth more than $5 million.

Bezos also pushing back on the suggestion that Amazon Studios' Melania Trump documentary was part of a broader effort to curry favor with the Trump administration, adding he has worked with presidents of both parties.

And as AI becomes an increasingly divisive topic, with some college graduation crowds booing speakers who praise the technology, Bezos making the case for optimism.