Michigan governor hopeful pressed on past SPLC work after DOJ indictment: 'What did Jocelyn know?'

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the SPLC paid members of these extremist groups so it could create a "work product that reported on these activities."

"Jocelyn Benson regularly touted her experience as a leader of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a group that the Department of Justice says secretly funneled money to the KKK and other hate groups they were purportedly tracking," the Michigan Republican Party posted on its official X account on Friday.

"What did Jocelyn know, and when did she know it?"

An official with the Benson campaign confirmed she served as a volunteer researcher for the SPLC after college and later served on the Montgomery-based group's board from 2014-2018.

"Jocelyn Benson has spent her career advancing the unfinished work of the civil rights movement and expanding economic opportunity, including helping dismantle white supremacist and neo-Nazi extremist networks responsible for hate crimes across the country," the campaign told Fox News Digital on Friday.

Republicans continued to press Benson for answers.

MIGOP Chairman Jim Runestad told Fox News Digital that Benson's tenure on the SPLC board coincided with the timeframe in which the DOJ alleged the group began "paying the KKK and other extremist groups."

"Benson owes an explanation to the public in what she knows about the SPLC's alleged criminal behavior, considering the criminal activity started around the same time Benson was named to the Board," Runestad said.

Benson has previously described her early work at the SPLC as focused on investigating extremist groups.

"And that was an act of courage, small and no one saw it, but it helped me build a bravery muscle that and several other points throughout my life so that 20 years later, 25 years later, when I'm standing up to the president of the United States, it wasn't the first time I've had to take on those harrowing fights," Benson went on in the interview.

In prior comments, an SPLC official named Penny Weaver described Benson as coming to Montgomery "straight out of college as an unpaid intern, then worked for us."

"Benson worked as a waitress to support herself so she could continue to volunteer at the center," Weaver said, adding that Benson begged to be able to volunteer for the SPLC.

"We are reviewing the charges," a subsequent statement from Fair sent to Fox News Digital added. "However, after today's Department of Justice press conference, we are outraged by the false allegations levied against SPLC - an organization that for 55 years has stood as a beacon of hope fighting white supremacy and various forms of injustice to create a multi-racial democracy where we can all live and thrive. Taking on violent hate and extremist groups is among the most dangerous work there is, and we believe it is also among the most important work we do. To be clear, this program saved lives."

The complete list of these groups, according to a Justice Department press release, includes the Ku Klux Klan, United Klans of America, Unite the Right, National Alliance, the National Socialist Movement, Aryan Nations affiliated Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club, National Socialist Party of America (American Nazi Party), and the American Front.

Fox News Digital's Alexandra Koch and Alec Schemmel and Fox News' Jake Gibson and David Spunt contributed to this report.