GOP lawmaker defends Turner from colleague’s criticism

Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) said Thursday that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said Turner’s call for declassification of national security threats was He came to his defense after House Republicans said the move was carried out with “reckless disregard.”

“We didn’t feel like the White House was responding to the threats that we know about against the Intelligence Committee. And we’re hoping to get some response,” Wenstrup said in an interview Thursday. Told.

Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) said in a letter that Turner’s Wednesday statement calling on the Biden administration to declassify information related to “national security threats” was “an addition to Ukraine. “This was done to ensure funding and passage of the bill,” he wrote. Unamended Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). ”

In an interview with host Blake Berman on “The Hill on NewsNation,” Wenstrup, a member of the Intelligence Committee, said of Ogles’ claims, “I did not discuss this issue with the Intelligence Committee. “I’ve never heard of anything like that,” he said.

“I never heard one of our members talk about it,” Wenstrup continued. “And you know, Mr. Ogles, he has a responsibility as a congressman. I hope he goes and reads what the threat is, but he has a responsibility to have his own opinion. and may be motivated by their opinions.”

The threat was later revealed to be Russia’s development of an anti-satellite weapon, and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said Thursday that Congress had known about the weapon for “several weeks.” .

“This is an issue we’ve known about for several weeks. We requested a meeting with the president. I did, we did so in writing in January,” Johnson told reporters. He spoke at

In his letter, Ogles said Turner’s actions amounted to “at a minimum a misjudgment and at a maximum a complete breach of trust influenced by the pursuit of a political agenda.”

“Because the chair of the Special Intelligence Committee is appointed solely by the Speaker and is under his direct authority, if the Chair remains in office, the Chair will have a duty to reassure this body (Congress) and the American people. “The members of the Intelligence Committee are not corrupted by the very institutions they are tasked with overseeing,” Ogles wrote.

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