House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer sent a letter Monday to Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona informing him the committee is investigating if the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) influences federal employees performing their duties on behalf of taxpayers and calling for a number of documents and information.
The Daily Caller first obtained a copy of the letter, in which Comer says the Committee is calling for the Department of Education’s communications pertaining to the SPLC and its projects as a part of its investigation. Comer says the SPLC has “weaponized” its designation of “hate group” to target conservatives with opposing viewpoints. He also mentions White House visitor logs show meetings with SPLC officials occurred at least eleven times since President Joe Biden was elected.
“A meeting of particular concern to the Committee took place on January 6, 2023, between Susan Corke, the director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project, and National Security Council counterterrorism director John Picarelli. Six months after the meeting, Corke made the decision to place multiple parental rights groups on its ‘hate map’ and branded them ‘antigovernment groups,'” Comer wrote in the letter. (RELATED: No Evidence White Supremacists Are Derailing The Protests, Left-Wing SPLC Says)
“The decision came only a few years after the Biden Administration and the Department of Justice (DOJ) acquiesced to demands of the National School Board Association (NSBA) to investigate parents and parents’ rights activists who had chosen to speak up at school board meetings throughout the country,” he continued.
HERE IS WHAT COMER DEMANDS IN THE LETTER:
- All communications between the Department of Education and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), its representatives, or other outside entities pertaining to SPLC.
- All Department of Education internal communications pertaining to the SPLC, including but not limited to communications addressing the SPLC’s “hate map” and “antigovernment group” designation.
- All Department of Education communications pertaining to the SPLC’s designation of any parental rights groups as “antigovernment groups” or its placement of any parental rights groups on its “hate map.”
READ THE LETTER HERE:
(DAILY CALLER OBTAINED) — … by Henry Rodgers
“The Committee is concerned and seeks to understand the extent of engagement, influence, and the impact of SPLC within your Department as well as any steps you may be taking to mitigate against it. The American people have a right to know how extensively federal employees are utilizing or disseminating flawed and subjective information that effectively discriminates against them for their First Amendment protected political views,” Comer added in the letter. (RELATED: House Oversight Committee Announces List Of Witnesses For First Impeachment Hearing)
Comer called for the information to be sent back to him and the committee no later than December 27, 2023.