Johnson Confronted By Top Republican At Live Press Conference

A political firestorm erupted inside the House GOP this week as House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik openly accused Speaker Mike Johnson of protecting the “deep state” and blocking her effort to expose FBI political surveillance abuses tied to both the infamous Crossfire Hurricane debacle and the more recent Arctic Frost scandal.

Stefanik — who has become one of President Donald Trump’s most effective and aggressive defenders on Capitol Hill — now says Johnson is siding with Democrats and shielding partisan actors inside the intelligence community rather than advancing long-delayed accountability.

The dispute centers on Stefanik’s amendment to require the FBI to notify Congress whenever it launches counterintelligence investigations involving presidential or federal candidates — a direct check on the very abuses that enabled the Russia Hoax and the Arctic Frost wiretapping operation. According to Stefanik, Johnson’s leadership team is trying to “quietly kill” the proposal behind closed doors.

In a series of blistering posts on X, Stefanik wrote:

“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.”

She went on to remind Americans that she was instrumental in exposing the original Crossfire Hurricane misconduct:

“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.”

Stefanik emphasized that her proposal has already cleared the House Intelligence Committee — repeatedly — and is critical in preventing future weaponization of the federal government.

“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.”

But she says Johnson and his lieutenants have buckled to Democratic pressure.

“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.”

She warned that recent scandals — from Arctic Frost to leaked private conversations involving businessman Steve Witkoff — only reinforce the necessity of her amendment:

“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.”

And Stefanik issued a clear ultimatum:

“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, for his part, quickly rejected Stefanik’s accusation, telling reporters the claims were based on a misunderstanding.

“All of that is false,” Johnson said. “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 immediately fired back, accusing Johnson of misleading members and concealing his role in blocking transparency reforms.

“Just more lies from the Speaker,” she wrote. “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.”

She pressed further:

“It wasn’t on your radar? 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 clash highlights mounting tension within the House GOP as Trump-aligned Republicans demand sweeping transparency reforms across the intelligence apparatus — reforms they argue are long overdue after years of politicized investigations targeting President Trump, his associates, and conservative activists.

Stefanik, now one of the most influential voices in the party, has sharpened her criticism of Johnson in recent weeks, echoing concerns from the House Freedom Caucus that GOP leadership is watering down serious efforts to dismantle the entrenched, unaccountable bureaucracy that has evaded oversight for years.

With the fight now spilling into public view, the battle over the FBI’s political surveillance powers — and the future direction of the Republican Party under President Trump’s second-term leadership — is entering a volatile new phase.