Griffin’s comments walk back legal concerns he previously expressed about the whites-only settlement. Earlier this month, Griffin told TMZ that Return to the Land — a community where prospective residents must verify their “ancestral heritage” in a written application and interview — raises “all sorts of legal issues, including constitutional concerns.”

The Forward reported in June about Return to the Land’s hopes of replicating its whites-only settlements across the country, with the stated aim of “trying to put land back under the control of Europeans.” Eric Orwoll and Peter Csere lead the group, which Morgan Moon of the Anti-Defamation League described as one of the most established white supremacist residential communities in the United States today.

In a June 30 email obtained by the Forward through a public records request, Gary McGee, an investigator with the Arkansas Fair Housing Commission wrote that “as of today, AFHC has not discovered any actual property owned by this organization or its founder, nor any advertisements for housing.”

Records show that a limited liability company in both Csere and Orwoll’s name, “Wisdom Woods LLC,” owns adjacent parcels of land totaling 157 acres near the town of Ravenden, where Sky News reporter Tom Cheshire visited the group and spoke with residents of the whites-only community in July.

Griffin did not respond to the Forward’s request for clarification about why the office believed Return to the Land had not broken any laws and whether it had considered the property owned by Wisdom Woods LLC.

McGee’s email appears to echo arguments made by Return to the Land about the legality of the arrangement.

“There is no actual change of real estate title occurring, nor are they renting the land,” Csere wrote in a message to the Forward, differentiating between directly owning land versus purchasing membership units of the LLC that owns the land. “The land stays under the ownership of the business entity that they are becoming a part-owner of.”

Since the Forward’s article was published in June, Return to the Land updated their website with a “legal disclaimer,” writing that “RTTL does not engage in the sale or rental of real estate,” and earlier this week they posted similar information on Substack in response to, “Is RTTL legal?” RTTL says it’s exempt from the Civil Rights Act because it’s a private club, and housing is not the group’s primary purpose.

Arkansas’ attorney general has not contacted Return to the Land, Csere wrote in a message to the Forward, adding that the group continues “to work with legal professionals to explore all facets of our organization, to ensure that we are operating in a lawful manner.”