When Republican Ohio Rep. Mike Turner was unceremoniously ousted as Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) just ahead of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, reports claimed that Trump had ordered Speaker Mike Johnson to orchestrate the shakeup. However, sources close to the decision-making process explained to the Daily Caller the real reasons behind Johnson giving Turner the boot.

In early January, Tablet Magazine published a piece that said Turner was boasting that he would be “taking over Trump’s IC [Intelligence Community]” by trying to get his staff director, Adam Howard, hired as the National Security Council’s senior director for intelligence. Tablet reported that Howard “is meant to be [Turner’s] instrument” in the position. Turner and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz both disputed the idea that Turner was influencing staffing decisions at the NSC.

“No one’s making personnel decisions outside of President Trump and his transition team. I mean, that’s it,” Waltz said in an exclusive interview with the Caller.

Regardless of its veracity, sources familiar with Turner’s ousting told the Caller that the report is still among a range of factors that influenced Turner’s removal from the top post on the Intelligence committee. However, these sources explained, Turner would have likely still have been pushed out even if the Tablet report had never dropped.

With Johnson being reelected speaker of the new Congress, he has the opportunity to choose his own chairs for select committees, like HPSCI, without input from the steering committee. One of the biggest factors for Turner’s dismissal was the view of most of the Republican conference that Turner is “in bed with the intelligence community,” the Caller’s sources explained. Turner was considered to be more aligned with former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy and, although Johnson and Turner got along personally, Johnson was looking for change. (Read more from “One Of DC’s Biggest Neocons Just Got Toppled — What Really Happened?” HERE)