President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday that John Ratcliffe, a former Texas congressman and director of national intelligence, will serve as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency in his administration.
“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,” Mr. Trump said in a statement.
The promotion makes Mr. Ratcliffe the first person to serve as both CIA director and director of national intelligence.
Mr. Ratcliffe served as the director of national intelligence from 2020 to 2021, at the end of Mr. Trump’s first term. He stirred controversy by publicly releasing unverified information about Russia’s influence in the 2016 presidential election. Critics claimed at the time he was using the position to help Mr. Trump politically ahead of the 2020 election.
He was the rare intelligence official who pushed back on claims that Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian disinformation.
More than 51 intelligence officials condemned reporting on the laptop, which they dismissed as Russian propaganda to harm President Biden’s election efforts. The laptop was later verified by the Justice Department and several media outlets.
Mr. Ratcliffe stayed in the position through the transition from the first Trump administration to the Biden administration. He again drew headlines for going against Mr. Trump and his allies by saying there was no evidence of election fraud in the 2020 election.
He later testified about his insistence that there was no foreign interference or widespread fraud in the election during social counsel Jack Smith’s probe into the 2020 election.
Prior to serving in the Trump administration, he was U.S. attorney for eastern Texas in 2007 and 2008. He later served five years in the House before Mr. Trump named him director of national intelligence.
After leaving the first Trump administration, Mr. Ratcliffe served as co-chairman of the Center for American Security, a Trump-aligned think tank for national security issues. The Center is part of the America First Policy Institute, which has been an advocacy platform for numerous alumni of the first Trump administration.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.