GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik Says She Caught Mike Johnson Telling 'Lies' and Secretly 'Siding with Jamie Raskin'

A growing clash inside the Republican Party is exposing serious fractures between GOP leadership and the party’s rising conservative fighters — and this time, the conflict pits one of the House’s most influential Republicans directly against the Speaker himself.

New York Rep. Elise Stefanik — widely seen as the front-runner for the 2026 GOP gubernatorial nomination — is openly accusing Speaker Mike Johnson of caving to Democrats and allowing the “deep state” to undercut critical transparency reforms. Her charge: Republican leadership is helping bury legislation designed to prevent another intelligence-community scandal like Operation Arctic Frost.

For months, Stefanik has been laser-focused on exposing the federal government’s political surveillance apparatus. Arctic Frost, spearheaded under former President Joe Biden’s Justice Department, amounted to a sweeping pressure operation that aggressively targeted President Donald Trump and his allies, including intrusive monitoring of phone communications. The episode further proved how deeply entrenched anti-Trump operatives had become inside federal agencies.

And while Stefanik was not personally targeted, the New York Republican has been one of the loudest voices demanding structural reforms to ensure such weaponization never happens again. Her current legislative push would “require Congressional disclosure when the FBI opens counterintelligence investigations into presidential and federal candidates seeking office” — a basic safeguard to prevent intelligence agencies from operating as political hit squads.

But according to Stefanik, the GOP’s own leadership is blocking it.

On Monday, she took her case public:

“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,” Stefanik posted, with a clear allusion to Johnson.

Her measure is currently part of the NDAA, the massive defense authorization bill moving through Congress. Stefanik argued the reform is long overdue.

“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.”

By Tuesday, her frustration had not cooled — it escalated.

“I just walked out of a briefing on this issue this morning CONFIRMING everything I posted yesterday.

That yes, in fact, the Speaker is blocking my provision to root out the illegal weaponization that led to Crossfire Hurricane, Arctic Frost, and more. He is siding with Jamie Raskin against Trump Republicans to block this provision to protect the deep state.

This is an easy one. This bill is DOA unless this provision gets added in as it was passed out of committee.”

The intensity of Stefanik’s challenge put Speaker Johnson on defense. In response to her allegations — shared by Punchbowl News founder Jake Sherman — Johnson attempted to dismiss the claims outright.

“All of that is false,” Johnson said, according to Sherman. “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.”

The divide now underscores a larger question for the GOP: will the party’s leadership stand firm with President Donald Trump’s second-term mandate to dismantle the weaponized bureaucracy — or continue making concessions that protect the very institutions conservatives have been fighting to reform?

One thing is clear: Stefanik isn’t backing down, and grassroots conservatives are watching closely.