President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he has chosen John Ratcliffe to serve as his CIA director.
Ratcliffe had been high on the list of potential attorney general candidates, sources told CNN. He currently serves as co-chair at the Center for American Security at the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-linked think tank.
Ratcliffe, a former representative from Texas, served as the director of national intelligence from 2020 to 2021 during Trump’s first term – and his appointment served as a key argument for critics who believed that Trump was using the intelligence community to serve his political needs.
During his tenure as spy chief, Ratcliffe publicly released unverified information about Russia’s influence in the 2016 presidential election over the objection of members of the intelligence community. Critics claimed at the time that Ratcliffe was using intelligence to help Trump politically as the 2020 presidential election approached.
Trump touted Ratcliffe’s loyalty Tuesday, saying in his announcement:“From exposing fake Russian collusion to be a Clinton campaign operation, to catching the FBI’s abuse of Civil Liberties at the FISA Court, John Ratcliffe has always been a warrior for Truth and Honesty with the American Public.”
A CIA official told CNN on Tuesday that the agency is “committed to ensuring a smooth transition.”
Trump initially picked Ratcliffe to be director of national intelligence in 2019, but the Texas conservative withdrew after questions emerged about exaggerations to his national security resume and his partisan record. Trump re-nominated him in 2020 after Ratcliffe emerged as a key defender of the president during the House’s first impeachment proceedings. The Senate later voted 49-44 along party lines to confirm him.
Ratcliffe stayed in the role during the 2020 election and presidential transition, during which he personally told Trump and his allies that there was no evidence of foreign election interference or widespread fraud. Years later, he was forced to testify about the experience to a federal grand jury as part of special counsel Jack Smith’s criminal probe into the aftermath of the 2020 election.
Ratcliffe represented Texas’ 4th Congressional District from 2015 to 2020 and held posts on the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees.
This story has been updated with additional reporting.
CNN’s Jeremy Herb and Alex Marquardt contributed to this report.
