The ex-boss of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Margaret Huang, helped oversee the nonprofit’s shift from a respected civil rights group — into an alleged “partisan smear machine.”
The Justice Department indicted the group on Tuesday, alleging it paid millions to members of hate groups to work as informants and “stoke racial hatred.”
Huang, whose compensation totaled $522,000 in 2023, took over as President and CEO in 2020 after the group’s co-founder, Morris Seligman Dees Jr., was axed following accusations of sexual harassment and being “complicit” in racial discrimination among the staff.
Huang’s tenure saw the SPLC take a much more partisan tone, accusing conservative and religious groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom, Moms for Liberty, and the Family Research Council of fomenting “hate” or “extremism.”
The civil rights group, founded in 1917, also included Turning Point USA on its “Hatewatch” newsletter – one day before its founder, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated during a speaking event in Utah on Sept. 10.
In a piece published last year, Huang claimed that “hard-right extremist groups” have steadily penetrated American life, politics, and government since President Trump’s 2016 election – arguing his second White House run gave them “an ally in the highest office in the nation.”
“What was once considered a fringe agenda in the modern era is the blueprint from which the country’s president–and the MAGA movement– is operating,” she blasted in an article for Daily Kos, warning that the “hard right” is muscling its way into schools and libraries.
“Lawmakers have not only pulled their agenda of exclusions but also their tactics straight from the playbook of hate and antigovernment extremist groups,” the Columbia University grad continued.
“By spreading disinformation, peddling conspiracy theories, and preying on people’s fears and uncertainty, they seek to deepen divisions and rouse suspicion of any effort to make spaces more welcoming for all.”
The organization also launched a webpage branding White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller an “anti-immigrant” who shaped Trump’s “racist and draconian immigration policies.”
As the group drew ire from conservatives for its political bias, FBI Director Kash Patel announced in September that he had “terminated” all official ties with it, slamming the group for abandoning its civil rights group and turning “into a partisan smear machine.”
Huang was forced out of her cushy role in July following mass layoffs, which critics slammed as a union-busting move.
She claimed her ouster stemmed from growing family demands and difficulty balancing work and home life.
Huang, who previously spent six years at Amnesty International, now serves as a senior adviser at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a role she began in January, according to her LinkedIn profile.
She could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Alabama-based nonprofit first gained prominence for busting the Ku Klux Klan with novel lawsuits and legal strategies.
It also helped journalists and law enforcement track far-right domestic extremists groups.
But the SPLC was hit with a bombshell federal indictment Tuesday, accusing it of paying out more than $3 million to individuals tied to extremist organizations such as the KKK and the National Socialist Party of America between 2014 and 2023.
SPLC CEO Bryan Fair said in a statement Tuesday that the organization was being politically targeted and claimed the Trump administration was weaponizing the DOJ.
