Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, speaks during a House Intelligence Committee hearing in Washington in November 2019. (Alex Brandon/AP)
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has decided to remove Rep. Michael R. Turner (R-Ohio) as chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Johnson confirmed Wednesday.
The change in leadership to the closely watched and powerful committee provides the latest evidence of a likely shift in how Republicans will approach Russia’s invasion of Ukraine during Donald Trump’s second term in office and a GOP majority in both the House and the Senate.
Johnson told reporters Wednesday night that Turner “performed valiantly in a difficult time, under difficult circumstances” but said the committee needed a “fresh start” in the new Congress.
Turner — an advocate for Ukraine funding who has at times been criticized by Republican skeptics of Ukraine in the House — reportedly told CBS News that the speaker cited “concerns from Mar-a-Lago,” Trump’s primary residence in Florida, as the justification for his removal as chair.
But when asked by reporters Wednesday night whether Trump urged him to make the change to the committee, Johnson said: “This is not a President Trump decision. This is a House decision, and this is no slight whatsoever to our outgoing chairman. He did a great job.”
Turner wrote on X on Wednesday night that he was “very proud to have served on the House Intelligence Committee and as its chairman.”
“There are great members on the Committee, and I’m honored to have served with them,” he wrote. “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.”
The speaker said Turner’s replacement will be announced Thursday.
Turner was initially tapped to serve as the top Republican on the committee in January 2022, when the GOP was in the House minority. When Republicans took back the majority that November, he was kept on to serve as chairman of the committee beginning in 2023. Unlike most House panel leadership roles, the decision of who chairs the Intelligence Committee is at the speaker’s discretion.
Roles on the committee are highly sought after. Members are granted access to some of the nation’s most classified information and are charged with overseeing the spy agencies — including the intelligence gathering within the FBI.
Last year, Johnson appointed Reps. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) and Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), two Trump loyalists who denied the results of the 2020 election, to the committee. Reps. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), Trump’s pick to serve as national security adviser, and Elise Stefanik (R-New York), the president-elect’s choice to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, also currently sit on the committee.
Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the committee, told MSNBC earlier Wednesday, “If the speaker has in fact removed Michael R. Turner, I’m very, very concerned about who may replace him.”
On the 2024 campaign trail, Trump vowed to bring an immediate end to the war in Ukraine but did not offer details about how he planned to do so. He also signaled privately that he would support a deal where Russia kept some captured territory, The Washington Post previously reported. More recently, Trump has said that his staff has been working to set up a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin has signaled that Putin is open to a potential meeting.
Abigail Hauslohner contributed to this report.
