House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) was frustrated during a live CNN broadcast on Tuesday after he was questioned about a MAGA political operation after a prominent nonprofit pushed back on an indictment from the Trump administration.
Jordan was speaking with CNN anchor Phil Mattingly when the conversation got heated over mention that Moms for Liberty was considered to have ties with groups designated as hate or extremist by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has been accused by President Donald Trump's Department of Justice's of wire and bank fraud. In a court filing on Tuesday, SPLC said that the FBI was aware that the organization had utilized their source information.
"Come on, Phil," Jordan said. "They're running a $3 millionscam, right? They were they weretelling their donors, oh, 'These hate groups are soterrible. Send us a bunch ofmoney.' Meanwhile, they werepaying people in the hate groupsto foment the hate. $3 millionover an eight year, 8 or 9 yearperiod of time. It's like,that's unbelievable."
Jordan, who claimed that the FBI had only worked with the nonprofit during the Biden administration, continued to accuse the group of wrongdoing.
"Here's aquestion I have because the FBIused the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Biden FBI used theSouthern Poverty Law Center totrain lawyers at the DOJ andpeople in the FBI," Jordan said. "I want toknow were any of theconfidential sources the FBI waspaying, was the Southern Poverty Law Center paying them too? Werethese guys double dipping while the Southern Poverty Law Center is scammingtheir donors like this is. Thisis ridiculous because they putthemselves out there as thestandard."
He appeared annoyed that the SPLC had designated the right-wing Moms for Liberty group as a having connections to extremist groups and mocked the findings.
"We evaluate what groupis a hate group, what Moms for Liberty is an extremist group," Jordan said of SPLC. "Family research Council's a hategroup. You got to be kidding me. And they were scamming thisthing."
He claimed that the nonprofit did not use informants and instead called them "instigators."
"And that's why they got indictedlast week," he added. "And God bless Attorney General [Todd] Blanche fordoing it."
Jordan had sent a letter last week and said a hearing would be upcoming in the next month.