Tag: house intelligence committee
Rep. Mike Johnson

Johnson Names Alleged Insurrectionist Perry To Intelligence Committee

During Sunday's episode of CBS' Face the Nation, host Margaret Brennan spoke with House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Turner (R-OH) about House Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-LA) newest committee appointments — which was met with "bipartisan uproar," according to Axios.

"I want to ask you about the Intelligence committee (IC)," Brennan said to the Ohio congressman. "You've tried to keep it nonpartisan, as you've said on this program. Speaker Johnson recently decided, as you know, to add two congressmen, Scott Perry (R-PA) and Ronny Jackson (R-TX), to your committee, reportedly at the behest of Donald Trump.

Axios notes, "Perry's phone was seized by the FBI as part of its Jan. 6 probe, while Jackson has faced allegations of drinking on duty and harassing staff when he was the White House physician."

Brennan noted, "Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) referred to Perry as a threat to oversight, saying, 'He will be on the very committee that oversees FBI while he is under direct investigation by this very agency. This, in and of itself, amounts to disqualifying conflicts of interest.'"

Turner replied, "Being concerned, obviously, about that issue, and being the chairman, to see whether or not there was an issue — in due diligence from our committee — that we needed to resolve or address — they indicated that there was not an ongoing or continuing issue, or even a current issue that we need to address."

Brennan asked, "The FBI told you that?"

Turner replied, "The IC told us that. I think what's very important here, is the speaker makes the appointment, and then what he's done since. The speaker has absolutely committed himself to these two individuals, following the rules — not only the laws. Both of them have military experience, both of them have had access to classified information before, and there's been no report of their handling or mishandling of classified information. The speaker has met with our committee — Republican members. We have had a meeting with Mr. Perry, myself and the speaker. The speaker has said this: He's going to continue to monitor the situation, if there's any indication of anything improper happening, that he will intervene. And I believe the speaker will assert leadership here."

"And withdraw...that nomination potentially?" Brennan asked, before saying "Scott Perry has come out, and took aim at you, as you know. Because he said if he gets on this committee, he'll conduct actual oversight, not blind obedience to some facets of our intelligence committee that he claimed are spying on the American people. How do you respond to that?"

The IC chair replied, "He has apologized, and certainly those are the types of words that you would not want from someone that is joining a committee that is obviously very dedicated to national security."

Watch the video below at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Incoming House Intelligence Chair Punts On Hunter Biden Investigation

Incoming House Intelligence Chair Punts On Hunter Biden Investigation

Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, has pledged to steer the committee away from politically charged investigations, including a Hunter Biden probe, and focus instead on its “areas of jurisdiction” — specifically, national security.

Turner’s remarks stood in stark contrast with the rabid rhetoric espoused by the fringe arm of the House GOP, who have since vowed baseless congressional investigations into President Biden’s family and other unfounded grievances in the forthcoming 118th Congress.

On November 17, barely a day after the major networks called the House for the Republican Party, Reps. James Comer (R-KY) and Jim Jordan (R-OH) — ranking Republicans in House Oversight and Judicial Committees, which they are expected to chair come January — announced imminent investigations into the president’s family.

"The president's participation in enriching his family is, in a word, abuse of the highest order," Comer said without citing any evidence. "I want to be clear: This is an investigation of Joe Biden, and that's where our focus will be next Congress."

Taking a step back from the performative effort that Comer gleefully christened “the Joe Biden investigation,” Turner told ABC News host Martha Raddatz in an interview that under his leadership, the intelligence panel would ditch partisanship for oversight.

“Congressman Turner, do you view [Hunter Biden’s laptop] as a matter for the intelligence community? What are [Republicans] looking at there?” Raddatz pressed Turner on Sunday’s broadcast of ABC News’ This Week.

“So, I think, you know, one thing that’s going to be very, very positive about this Congress is: we’re going to get back to the committees working again,” Turner replied.

“And what the committee is working on, they’re going to be focusing on their areas of jurisdiction. We’re going to take the intelligence committee from what was an impeachment committee, a partisan committee, back to national security.

“There certainly are issues with respect to Hunter Biden’s laptop that are going to have to be looked at,” Turner added.

“Impeachment issues, you believe?” Raddatz asked, alluding to the egregious threats of impeachment that prominent right-wing luminaries and their allies have dangled since Donald Trump lost the 2020 elections.

“The impeachment issue was Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi. And where our committee was taken off the rails,” Turner replied, referring to the 2019 and 2021 impeachments of then-President Trump.

However, Turner glossed over GOP firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and House Resolution 57, an article of impeachment she filed on January 21, 2021, barely a day after Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States of America.

“Our committee is going to focus on national security and our adversaries. We have real adversaries where the committee hasn’t been focused again,” Turner continued, taking care to sidestep the Hunter Biden issue.

Turner’s comments mirrored his responses in an interview with the New York Times last month, where he promised to focus and work with his Democratic colleagues on national security oversight.

“We need to do the job that we were intended to do,” Turner told the Times. “I believe that there is a hunger between both sides of the aisle — members who are national security-focused, intelligence community-focused — to get this committee back on track."

The Republican also told Raddatz that the committee aims to provide the U.S. intelligence community with “the tools that we need” to “move at the speed of our adversaries,” rejecting Greene’s push to defund the Justice Department for investigating Trump’s novel heist of thousands of government documents.

Trump has repeatedly lambasted the FBI for seizing the stolen documents from his Mar-a-Lago estate, the Justice Department for reviewing them for violations of federal laws, and Special Counsel Jack Smith, appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to take over two Trump criminal investigations after the ex-president announced a 2024 presidential bid.

“You people have to fight. You have to fight. You have to be strong,” Trump remarked at a November 18 address at his Florida abode — echoing his incendiary January 6, 2021, call to “fight,” which incited a mob of his supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol shortly after.

Devin Nunes Retiring From Congress To Head Trump Media Outfit

Devin Nunes Retiring From Congress To Head Trump Media Outfit

Reprinted with permission from AlterNet

Republican Rep. Devin Nunes of California is retiring from Congress at the end of 2021 to work for former President Donald Trump.

The news was first reported by Alex Tavlian of The San Joaquin Valley Sun, which initially claimed he'd stay on until 2022 before updating with the much more rapid timeline. The Trump Media and Technology Group later released a statement confirming that Nunes had accepted an offer to become its CEO, a position he'll assume in January of the new year.

Many observers quickly pointed out that Nunes was next in line to be chair of the Ways and Means committee, should Republicans take control of the House of Representatives — a particularly powerful position in Congress. But apparently, his options outside of government were even more enticing.

Nunes came to public prominence as a fierce defender of Trump during his presidency. For the first two years, Nunes led the House Intelligence Committee and waged an aggressive campaign against the government's investigations into the then-president. He was an aggressive opponent of the Russia investigation and stoked conspiracy theories about an inside plot to bring Trump down.

Nunes was also an outspoken critic of the House investigation of Trump's efforts to induce Ukraine into going after Joe Biden, which eventually led to the first of his two impeachments.

Since taking a prominent place in American politics, the California congressman launched a sweeping effort to silence some of his critics by weaponizing a series of lawsuits against media organizations and individuals whose reporting and commentary displeased him. Those lawsuits have been largely unsuccessful in court, but the effort may have nevertheless contributed to a chilling effect on people interested in speaking out against him.

Trump Administration Subpoenaed Apple For Lawmakers' Personal Data

Trump Administration Subpoenaed Apple For Lawmakers' Personal Data

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Justice Department under former President Donald Trump subpoenaed Apple Inc for data from the accounts of at least two Democrats on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee in an attempt to find out who was behind leaks of classified information, the New York Times reported on Thursday. The records of at least a dozen people tied to the committee were seized in 2017 and early 2018, including those of Representative Adam Schiff, then the panel's top Democrat and now its chairman, the Times said. The paper cited unnamed committee officials and two other...

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