ADL split marks FBI shift away from targeting right-wing violence, scholars say

Scholars said that under President Trump, the FBI is less invested in right-wing domestic terrorism.

• "Apparently, this is being thrown away for partisan political reasons," Douglas M. Charles, a historian at Penn State University, said. "That can only be a bad thing in the long run."

Driving the news: FBI director Kash Patel announced the bureau would end its partnership with the ADL following right-wing backlash to the group's web pages on the Christian identity movement and Turning Point USA, the group founded by slain MAGA activist Charlie Kirk.

• Patel later cut ties with the Southern Poverty Law Center, a storied civil rights group that tracks hate-motivated violence across the U.S.

Zoom in: The primary target of the backlash was the ADL's "glossary of extremism," which offered background information on groups and ideologies connected to racist, antisemitic and otherwise hateful incidents. The ADL has since taken down the page.

What they're saying: "James Comey wrote 'love letters' to the ADL and embedded FBI agents with them — a group that ran disgraceful ops spying on Americans," Patel wrote in a Wednesday X post.

• "That era is OVER," he said. "This FBI won't partner with political fronts masquerading as watchdogs."
• His reference to Comey, who was indicted last month after Trump publicly called for action against him, seems to allude to 2014 remarks in which the then-FBI director applauded the ADL's "leadership in tracking and exposing domestic and international terrorist threats."

The other side: The ADL said in a statement following Patel's announcement that it has "deep respect" for the FBI and law enforcement officers.

• "In light of an unprecedented surge of antisemitism, we remain more committed than ever to our core purpose to protect the Jewish people," the group said.

The relationship between the FBI and the ADL

The ADL has historically fed information about extremist organizations and individuals to the FBI, Matthew Dallek, a political historian at George Washington University, said.

• In the 1950s and '60s, he added, the FBI was primarily interested in disrupting communist activity, but the ADL "welcomed help from law enforcement trying to expose radical movements on the right and the left, but primarily the right."
• The ADL in exchange received information about antisemitism, white supremacy and hate movements more broadly from the FBI, which it then reported to local law enforcement.

Emmaia Gelman, an American studies scholar and author of a forthcoming book about the ADL, noted that the organization has worked with the FBI on conservative projects since the Cold War.

• It was sued in 1993 for illegally spying on political and ethnic groups, which ended in a settlement. At the time, the group denied any wrongdoing.
• "The ADL can be politically confusing," Gelman said, also referencing the group's defense of Elon Musk after he came under fire for making a hand gesture that drew comparisons to a Nazi salute.

The Trump team is prioritizing left-wing violence

"Kash Patel's FBI and the Trump administration have virtually zero interest in tracking and counteracting the threat from the far right," Dallek said.

• He pointed to Trump's attempts to tie Charlie Kirk's assassination to violent left-wing actors.
• "In some ways, Trump has made a tacit alliance with some parts of the far-right," he said, referencing Trump's pardoning of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers for members' participation in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Dallek pointed to the ADL split as contradictory to the Trump administration's stated goal of combating antisemitism, which has typically taken on the form of punishing criticism of Israel. He called the ADL "one of the more effective nonprofits countering antisemitism in the United States."

• "What is different about the Trump admin is the degree to which it is exclusively focused on threats from the left," Dallek said.

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson reinforced the administration's insistence that left-wing violence should remain a focus in a statement to Axios on Friday.

• She said "the president's executive actions to address left-wing violence will put an end to any illegal activities."

The FBI and ADL did not respond to Axios' request for comment.