Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will not make Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in the 119th Congress, a source familiar with the decision confirmed to The Hill.
Turner had been the top Republican on the committee, a position selected by the Speaker, since the start of 2022, chosen by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for the role.
Because he will no longer be chairman, Turner is set to no longer be on the committee at all. House rules limit membership on the panel to no more than four Congresses, or eight years, in a period of six successive Congresses — a rule that does not apply to the chairman. Turner joined the Intelligence Committee in 2015.
Punchbowl News first reported Turner’s ouster from the Intelligence Committee role.
Johnson’s decision to remove Turner comes as somewhat of a surprise. Though Johnson had not officially named a chair for the Intelligence panel for this Congress, Turner attended a dinner at Mar-a-Lago with President-elect Trump over the weekend with all the other House GOP standing committee chairs.
A source familiar with Turner’s office speculated that his removal had to do with a cryptic warning he issued about a “serious national security threat” in early 2024, setting off a national panic — and then backlash.
White House national security communications adviser John Kirby later confirmed that the threat pertained to a Russian anti-satellite capability, but said it is not an “active capability.”
The statement drew backlash from other Republicans, some of whom accused the chairman of having ulterior motives behind releasing the statement.
It was a remarkable move, with the House Intel chair single-handedly forcing President Biden to declassify information he wasn’t otherwise planning to share with the public.
Ranking member Jim Himes (D-Conn.) said at the time that Turner overstepped, adding “it’s something that the Congress the administration does need to address in the medium to long run.”
Turner has also been a strong Republican supporter of aid to Ukraine, and supported an extension of surveillance powers known Section 702 in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) – both of which have drawn the ire of Trump-allied, America First conservatives.
Turner’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
CBS News’s Margaret Brennan reported that Turner told her that Johnson fired him after citing “concerns from Mar-a-Lago.”
Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), ranking member on the panel, told reporters that Turner’s removal “sends a shiver down my spine” and that he is “enormously concerned,” CNN reported.
It is unclear who Johnson will select to replace Turner. There are a number of vacancies and upcoming vacancies on the Republican side of the committee, due to retirements and members like Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Mike Waltz (R–Fla.) being selected for Trump administration positions.
Johnson last year appointed Reps. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) and Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) to the committee, while the remaining Republicans on the panel are holdovers from before he became Speaker.
Mychael Schnell and Rebecca Beitsch contributed. Updated at 6:15 p.m.
