The Heritage Foundation is suing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for records related to its decision to fund a program that likened the think tank and other conservative organizations to neo-Nazi militants.

Heritage’s Oversight Project filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the DHS for records connected to the agency’s Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant Program (TVTP) that sent more than $350,000 to a project at the University of Dayton responsible for generating a “pyramid of far right-radicalization” that compared the Republican party and prominent conservative organizations to neo-Nazis.

The Media Research Center (MRC), a conservative press watchdog, released documents in May showing the DHS was funding the University of Dayton’s research program, Fox News reported.

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The DHS sent $352,109 to the University of Dayton’s PREVENTS-OH Program, which purports to combat “domestic violent extremism” in Ohio, where the university is located. The program discloses its DHS funding on its website without including the specific dollar amount.

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In Dec. 2021, a seminar held by the Dayton program featured a “Pyramid of Far-Right Radicalization.” The pyramid grouped Heritage with Fox News, the National Rifle Association and the Republican Party in the category of “mainstream conservatism.” The second tier included “alt-lite” outlets and organizations like PragerU, InfoWars and Turning Point USA. The third was labeled “alt-right” and featured overtly white supremacist outlets like the Daily Stormer and American Renaissance, while the fourth featured groups dedicated to “accelerationist terrorism,” per the pyramid.

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