Trump brokers deal between Stefanik, Johnson over FBI surveillance of politicians

Trump's intervention followed a high-profile online spat between Stefanik and Johnson over the provision.

Published: December 3, 2025 10:45am

President Donald Trump has brokered a deal between Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and House Speaker Mike Johnson to include a provision requiring that the FBI inform Congress when it opens a counterintelligence investigation into federal political candidates in an upcoming bill.

"Great news!  

After a productive discussion I had last night with President Trump and Speaker Johnson, the provision requiring Congressional disclosure when the FBI opens counterintelligence investigations into presidential and federal candidates seeking office will be included in the IAA/NDAA bill on the floor," Stefanik confirmed.
"
This is a significant legislative win delivered against the illegal weaponization of the deep state.  

And, of course, while this is an important step, there is so much more work to do."

Trump's intervention followed a high-profile online spat between Stefanik and Johnson over the provision, with Johnson denying any knowledge of the provision's removal from a planned bill and Stefanik saying his comments were "lies."

"This is his preferred tactic to tell Members when he gets caught torpedoing the Republican agenda. 

It wasn’t on your radar? This is the ONLY provision in the bill to root out the deep state rot," she said, earlier this week. "You torpedoed this siding with Jamie Raskin.

You said you would fix it, so fix it."

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.

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