Speaker Johnson removes House Intel Committee's chairman

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) just fired the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives' Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. 

Johnson's removal of U.S. Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) from that post was first reported on Wednesday by Punchbowl News' Jake Sherman.

"BREAKING NEWS: @SpeakerJohnson has decided to remove @RepMikeTurner as chair of the House Intelligence Committee," Sherman reported, via his X account.

🚨🚨BREAKING NEWS: @SpeakerJohnson has decided to remove @RepMikeTurner as chair of the House Intelligence Committee.

from me and @MZanona

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) January 15, 2025

Why now?

The big question, of course, is why Johnson has decided to take the step of removing Turner. More details about the situation have been reported by Fox News, and it turns out that Turner's removal was probably a long time coming.

Per the outlet:

Speaker Mike Johnson is replacing Rep. Mike Turner as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee after a debacle that started with a warning about Russian space nuclear technology last year, a source familiar with the decision confirmed to Fox News Digital. Johnson, R-La., was unhappy with Turner, R-Ohio, after a seemingly unexpected warning he issued about the need to declassify information about Russian anti-satellite technology.

Although the Turner's removal was something that apparently Johnson has been considering for some time, it nonetheless was unexpected by just about everyone.

"The decision to replace Turner took many by surprise. Though Johnson had not officially named him as chairman, Turner attended a dinner of House GOP committee chairs with President-elect Trump over the weekend," Fox reports.

This leads to another big question:

Did Trump have something to do with it?

According to Breitbart News and its sources, the answer to this question appears to be "Yes, Trump did have something to do with Turner's removal."

It is fairly well-known that Turner, although a Republican, has clashed with Trump and his supporters on certain issues.

Breitbart, for example, reports:

Privacy advocates on both sides of the aisle have frequently criticized Turner for doing the bidding of the intelligence community. His fervency towards preserving Section 702 provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that enable intelligence agencies to spy on Americans without warrants particularly rankled Trump. Critics of 702 argue the provision empowers the Deep State beyond constitutional grounds.

Juliegrace Brufke, a reporter for The Daily Beast, reports, "Per two senior sources, Turner told colleagues Johnson said Trump requested the shakeup."

In his own statement on the matter, Turner said, "Under my leadership, we restored the integrity of the Committee and returned its mission to its core focus of national security. The threat from our adversaries is real and requires serious deliberations."