House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik is publicly accusing Speaker Mike Johnson of protecting the “deep state” and blocking her proposal to expose FBI political surveillance abuses tied to both the Crossfire Hurricane and Arctic Frost investigations — charging that Johnson has sided with Democrats against Trump-aligned Republicans.
Stefanik made the explosive allegation in a series of posts on X, saying her amendment — requiring the FBI to notify Congress whenever it opens counterintelligence investigations involving presidential or federal candidates — was being “quietly killed behind closed doors” by Johnson’s leadership team.
Stefanik wrote on X:
Republicans have the House, Senate, and the White House, yet the deep state is alive and well with the Speaker getting rolled by House Dems attempting to block my provision to require Congressional disclosure when the FBI opens counterintelligence investigations into presidential and federal candidates seeking office.
In a March 2017 open hearing, my questions to former FBI Director James Comey began the unraveling of the Russia Hoax when Comey admitted to not following proper notification procedures with his illegal opening of Crossfire Hurricane. A criminal act that can never happen again.
My provision will strengthen this accountability and transparency to deter this illegal weaponization and it passed out of the House Intelligence Committee in this Congress and previous ones.
Yet House Republicans continue to get rolled by the deep state due to opposition by Jamie Raskin.
If Republicans can’t deliver accountability and legislative fixes to arguably the biggest illegal corruption and government weaponization issue of all time, then what are we even doing.
This language is even more essential in light of the continued weaponization of the federal government evidenced by the sweeping Arctic Frost wiretapping scandal and the recent illegal leaks of Steve Witkoff’s conversations with foreign counterparts.
Unless this provision is added back into the bill to prevent illegal political weaponization of the intelligence community in our elections, I am a HARD NO. I have always voted in support of the defense and intelligence authorization bills, but no more.
It is a scandalous disgrace that Republicans are allowing themselves to be rolled by the Dems and deep state on this.
Speaker Johnson quickly pushed back on Stefanik’s charges, calling them “false” and suggesting a misunderstanding about the legislative process.
“All of that is false,” Johnson told reporters. “I don’t exactly know why Elise won’t just call me. I texted her yesterday. She’s upset one of her provisions is not being made, I think, into the NDAA. As soon as I heard this yesterday, I was campaigning in Tennessee, and I wrote her and said, What are you talking about? This hasn’t even made it to my level.”
Stefanik rejected Johnson’s denial, accusing him of misleading members and deliberately stalling her proposal.
“Just more lies from the Speaker,” she replied on X. “He texted me claiming he ‘knew nothing about it.’ Yeah right. This is his preferred tactic — to tell Members he’s unaware when he’s caught torpedoing the Republican agenda.”
“It wasn’t on your radar?” Stefanik continued. “This is the ONLY provision in the bill to root out the deep state rot. My provision passed out of the House Intelligence Committee — the committee of jurisdiction — and should be heard on the floor. You torpedoed this siding with Jamie Raskin. You said you would fix it, so fix it.”
The escalating feud underscores widening fractures inside the House GOP between Speaker Johnson and Trump-aligned lawmakers pressing for full disclosure of intelligence and law enforcement operations dating back to the 2016 election.
Stefanik has increasingly taken on a confrontational tone toward Johnson in recent weeks, joining several members of the House Freedom Caucus in warning that leadership is watering down reforms aimed at dismantling the “weaponized bureaucracy.”
