FBI Director Kash Patel said Wednesday he had cut the FBI’s ties with the Anti-Defamation League, a leading Jewish civil rights group that has partnered with law enforcement agencies for decades to educate authorities on extremism and antisemitism.

The Washington Post couldn’t immediately verify what had motivated the move. But Patel’s decision comes as the ADL has been the target of conservative ire in recent days.

Patel said the ADL had served as a “political front” and spied on Americans. Patel also denounced the FBI’s previous involvement with the ADL, which was supported by former FBI director James B. Comey......

The FBI has worked with the ADL on civil rights and hate crime training for state and local law enforcement agencies. Some training courses conducted with the ADL, such as the Law Enforcement and Society workshop, which “examine[s] the history of the Holocaust, the role of police under the Nazis, and the implications of the Holocaust for law enforcement today,” were mandatory for new agents. The FBI also created a hate crimes manual with the ADL, according to Comey’s 2014 remarks.......

The ADL has been targeted by conservatives online after the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The ADL had listed Kirk’s youth group Turning Point USA on its now-closed glossary of extremism. In it, the ADL described TPUSA as a right-wing student organization that provided a “platform for extremists and far-right conspiracy theorists.”