Trump Choses New CIA Chief
- 13.11.2024, 8:46
His nominee has to be confirmed by the Senate.
Donald Trump, the 47th President-elect of the United States, has announced his choice to head the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), John Ratcliffe. He was Director of National Intelligence during the past administration in the White House, and a former prosecutor.
This is reported by ABC News.
Trump noted in Truth Social that he ‘looks forward to John being the first person to hold both of the top positions in our intelligence community.’
Meanwhile, Ratcliffe himself has not commented on his future appointment, and his nomination will have to be confirmed by the Senate.
On What is Known About John Ratcliffe
Ratcliffe, a Republican, held a seat in the US Congress three times before going to work for the first Trump administration in the middle of 2020. And he was first elected to Congress in 2014 and served on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the Judiciary Committee, the Ethics Committee and the Homeland Security Committee.
Trump first nominated Ratcliffe for the post in 2019, but he withdrew his nomination at the time amid concerns within the Republican and Democratic parties about his qualifications for such a position.
Ratcliffe, however, was successfully confirmed a year after Trump nominated him again to be the US intelligence chief.
Ratcliffe had previously gained Trump's favour when he strongly defended the president during his impeachment trial. He was later appointed as part of Trump's defence team during his first impeachment.
As director of national intelligence, Ratcliffe focused his attention on space-related issues and China, which he described as a major threat to the United States.
In 2023, Ratcliffe became a visiting fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, the organisation behind the controversial ‘Project 2025’, describing how the organisation's plan for Trump's second term was among its list of 267 ‘contributors’.
Before being elected to Congress, he was appointed in 2004 by the Bush administration as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas.
In 2023, Trump's lawyers tried to prevent Ratcliffe from testifying before a federal grand jury in the special prosecutor's investigation into election interference after the 2020 presidential election. Ratcliffe testified before the grand jury in April 2023.
John Ratcliffe has been one of the harshest critics of Attorney General Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.