President-elect Donald Trump announced on 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 according to 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.”