Speaker Johnson removes Ohio's Turner as head of House Intelligence Committee

Billy House, Bloomberg News on Jan 15, 2025

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WASHINGTON — Representative Mike Turner, a longtime defense hawk, has been removed as chairman of the powerful House Intelligence Committee, House Speaker Mike Johnson said.

The abrupt demotion, particularly so close to an inauguration, was highly unusual. Johnson said he had nothing bad to say about the veteran Ohio congressman. “It’s just the intelligence community and everything related, it needs a fresh start.” Johnson added that a successor would be named on Thursday.

Turner and President-elect Donald Trump have diverged over support for Ukraine in its defense against the Russian invasion. Turner has emerged as one of Ukraine’s strongest backers and has advocated for a steady flow of security aid as well as speeding up weapons deliveries. He has also been involved with NATO.

He’s also run afoul of some congressional Trump supporters by pushing for extending spying powers while they were pressing for requiring warrants to surveil targets.

“This is not a President Trump decision. This is a House decision,” Johnson said at the Capitol on Wednesday night.

Representative Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the panel, praised Turner as a “serious, security focused lawmaker dedicated at his core to the national security of the United States and to the thoughtful oversight of the Intelligence Community.”

“The removal of Chairman Turner makes our nation less secure and is a terrible portent for what’s to come,” Himes said in a statement. “The Constitution demands that Congress function as a check and balance to the Executive Branch, not cater to its demands.”

Turner in a statement said he was “very proud to have served on the House Intelligence Committee and as its chairman.” He added that he would continue to serve on the Armed Services Committee.

Turner’s statement did not detail any reasons for his removal. Requests for further comment from Turner made to multiple spokespeople were not immediately answered.

Early last year, he caused a stir in Washington by warning of an unspecified national security threat. The White House later said that Russia was developing an “anti-satellite capability” but cautioned that it was not yet active and posed no immediate danger.

Turner, who represents a district in southwest Ohio, has been a reliable advocate for Trump in the House, where Republicans hold a slender majority. Earlier Wednesday, for instance, he posted on X that the announcement of an agreement to free hostages held by Hamas “would not have been possible without” the president-elect’s commitment to “peace through strength.”

In 2023, he called for a federal investigation of Michael Cohen, a former Trump lawyer, over whether he committed perjury in congressional testimony on Trump’s business dealings. The year before that, he asked the Justice Department to hand over the information that law enforcement officials used to get a search warrant for Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.

Elected to the House in 2002 after serving as mayor of Dayton, Turner cast himself as a champion of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, which is northeast of Dayton.

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(With assistance from Roxana Tiron.)