FBI Director Kash Patel says the bureau is cutting ties with two organizations that for decades have tracked domestic extremism and racial and religious bias, a move that follows complaints about the groups from some conservatives and prominent allies of Donald Trump.
Patel said on October 3 that the FBI would sever its relationship with the Southern Poverty Law Center, asserting that the organization had been turned into a “partisan smear machine” and criticizing it for its use of a “hate map” that documents alleged anti-government and hate groups inside the United States.
A statement from Patel said the FBI would end ties with the Anti-Defamation League, a prominent Jewish advocacy organization that fights antisemitism.
Civil rights experts warn that Patel’s rhetoric marks more than a policy shift — it is a calculated dismantling of the FBI’s ability to track violent extremism. By severing ties with watchdogs that have historically supplied frontline intelligence, the bureau is not neutralizing bias but stripping away safeguards.
The move signals a dangerous willingness to appease political allies at the expense of public safety.
The announcements amount to a dramatic rethinking of longstanding FBI partnerships with prominent civil rights groups at a time when Patel is moving rapidly to reshape the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency.
The organizations over the years have provided research on hate crime and domestic extremism, law enforcement training and other services but have also been criticized by some conservatives for what they say is an unfair maligning of their viewpoints.
That antagonism escalated after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk amid renewed attention to the SPLC’s characterization of the group, Turning Point USA, that Kirk founded and led.
The SPLC included a section on Turning Point in a report titled “The Year in Hate and Extremism 2024” that described the group as “A Case Study of the Hard Right in 2024.” Prominent figures including Elon Musk lambasted the SPLC about its descriptions of Kirk and the organization.
The conservative outrage also underscores a deep hypocrisy. For years, Republican figures have mocked liberals as “snowflakes” unable to handle opposing views. Yet their own response to watchdog criticism has been to unleash furious campaigns of intimidation and grievance. The same voices demanding toughness collapse into outrage the moment their politics are scrutinized, exposing the fragility beneath their bullying posture.
Critics of Patel’s decision argue that it reflects political pressure more than professional law enforcement judgment. By catering to conservative backlash against watchdog reports, the FBI risks legitimizing extremist narratives and undermining its own credibility as an independent agency charged with protecting public safety.
Patel’s actions have drawn praise from figures who have repeatedly downplayed or defended far-right movements, signaling a clear ideological pivot inside the bureau. By withdrawing from watchdog partnerships that documented White Nationalist and anti-government networks, Patel has repositioned the FBI’s public posture closer to the narratives of conservative activists who accuse those same watchdogs of bias.
Analysts say that in practice, the bureau’s disengagement aligns federal law enforcement with the political grievances of groups once classified as subjects of extremist concern.
A spokesperson for the SPLC, a legal and advocacy group founded in 1971 as a watchdog for minorities and the underprivileged, did not directly address Patel’s comments in a statement on October 3 but said the organization has for decades shared data with the public and remains “committed to exposing hate and extremism as we work to equip communities with knowledge and defend the rights and safety of marginalized people.”
Community leaders say the FBI’s withdrawal from these partnerships sends a chilling message to the very groups most targeted by hate crimes. Black churches, synagogues, and immigrant organizations that once relied on SPLC or ADL-FBI trainings now face heightened vulnerability as extremist movements grow more violent.
The Anti-Defamation League has also faced criticism on the right for maintaining a “Glossary of Extremism.” The organization announced that it was discontinuing that glossary because a number of entries were outdated and some were being “intentionally misrepresented and misused.”
Founded in 1913 to confront antisemitism, the ADL has long worked closely with the FBI, not only through research and training but also through awards ceremonies that recognize law enforcement officials involved in investigations into racially or religiously motivated extremism.
Former FBI Director James Comey paid tribute to that relationship in May 2017 when he said at an ADL event: “For more than 100 years, you have advocated and fought for fairness and equality, for inclusion and acceptance. You never were indifferent or complacent.”
A Patel antagonist, Comey was indicted in September on false statement and obstruction charges and has said he is innocent. Patel appeared to mock Comey’s 2017 comments in an October 1 post on X in which he shared a Fox News story that quoted him as having cut ties with the ADL.
“James Comey wrote ‘love letters’ to the ADL and embedded FBI agents with them – a group that ran disgraceful ops spying on Americans,” he said in a post made as Jews were preparing to begin observing Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. “That era is OVER. This FBI won’t partner with political fronts masquerading as watchdogs.
For decades, data provided by the SPLC and ADL has been foundational in identifying White Supremacist networks, anti-government militias, and groups linked to domestic terrorism. Civil rights advocates warn that severing these ties risks blinding federal investigators to the growing threat of far-right violence, which federal statistics consistently show as the most lethal form of extremism in the United States.
An ADL spokesman did not immediately comment on Patel’s announcement, but the group’s CEO and national director, Jonathan Greenblatt, said in a statement that the ADL “has deep respect” for the FBI.
Government threat assessments over the last decade, including from DHS and the FBI itself, have consistently ranked white supremacist violence as the deadliest form of extremism in America. Severing ties with watchdogs that document this threat raises alarms that politics, not evidence, is guiding federal priorities.
“In light of an unprecedented surge of antisemitism, we remain more committed than ever to our core purpose to protect the Jewish people,” Greenblatt said.
