Grassley Opens Nominations Hearing, Applauds DOJ Action to Address SPLC’s Extremist Ties

Prepared Opening Statement by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
Nominations
Wednesday, April 29, 2026

Today's panel features four district court nominees: Michael Hendershot for the Northern District of Ohio, Arthur Jones for the Southern District of Texas, Jeffrey Kuntz for the Southern District of Florida and John Marck for the Southern District of Texas.

In a moment, I'll turn to our visitors to introduce these nominees, but first I'd like to say a few words.

Over the weekend, we witnessed another assassination attempt against President Trump and members of his cabinet.

This was the third attempt in two years, which is unprecedented in our nation's history.

The latest attack occurred at the White House Correspondents' Dinner - a bipartisan event dedicated to freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

So, this was not just an attack on the president, but also on the First Amendment itself.

I've repeatedly encouraged all Americans to stop the violent rhetoric that's led to these attacks. We cannot allow this to become the norm in our country.

We must solve our differences through discussion and debate, not violence.

I want to echo President Trump's statement from that evening. We all need to set aside our differences and unify as Americans.

I appreciate Director Curran's commitment to transparency and for quickly briefing me and Senator Durbin about the shooting.

I'd also like to commend the brave law enforcement officers who acted swiftly to prevent the attack from escalating further.

My prayers are with the Secret Service agent who was injured and his family.

The political violence we witnessed on Saturday night has many causes. But one of them is the orchestrated and intentional fomentation of division among Americans.

So, I was encouraged when Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced last week that a federal grand jury indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

The indictment alleges that SPLC has been funding extremist groups - paying more than $3 million to leaders in the Ku Klux Klan and the National Socialist Movement.

Although SPLC has long claimed that it's fighting against these groups, the allegations paint a very different picture.

For example, the indictment alleges that SPLC paid a person involved in the planning of the infamous Unite-the-Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Events like that have fanned the flames of division and hatred within our country.

The hypocrisy of SPLC is truly astounding.

It labels groups like Focus on the Family and Moms for Liberty as extremist hate groups, but it's now charged with apparently funneling money to actual hate groups like the KKK.

Given what's come to light, I'm astonished that the Biden administration shelved its investigation into SPLC, and I applaud Attorney General Blanche's leadership and the Justice Department for their important work on this case.

Of note, then-Director Wray's FBI used the SPLC as an information source for the anti-Catholic Richmond memo.

Director Patel has since rightly put an end to the FBI using the SPLC as a source.

We need to root out groups that are intentionally sowing hatred and division in our country, which leads to political violence.

Investigating groups like SPLC is a good first step towards lowering the temperature in our nation and hopefully preventing incidents like the one we witnessed on Saturday night.

Turning to today's agenda, we have four highly qualified district court nominees.

Mr. Jones and Mr. Marck are career prosecutors. Mr. Hendershot's spent the past 15 years as Ohio's Chief Deputy Solicitor General, and Judge Kuntz has served as an appellate judge in Florida for the last decade.

They have diverse backgrounds, but they've all demonstrated a commitment to the rule of law and a steadfast devotion to protecting Americans.

We'll hear more about each of these nominees from our introducing senators, and I look forward to hearing from each of them this afternoon.

Before I turn it over to Senator Durbin, I'll ask everyone to keep their questions limited to the five minutes allotted to keep the hearing on schedule.

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