John Ratcliffe chosen as Trump’s pick to lead CIA

President-elect Trump announced Tuesday that he will nominate John Ratcliffe, his former head of national intelligence, to lead the CIA.

Ratcliffe, a former Texas representative, was critical of investigations into Trump while in Congress and later served as a member of his impeachment team during Democrats’ first effort to boot Trump from office.

A statement from Trump praises Ratcliffe for “exposing fake Russian collusion to be a Clinton campaign operation,” being a critic of a national security program that greenlights foreign surveillance and for criticizing those who first called into question the legitimacy of a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden.

“John Ratcliffe has always been a warrior for Truth and Honesty with the American Public,” Trump said in a statement.

“I look forward to John being the first person ever to serve in both of our Nation’s highest Intelligence positions. He will be a fearless fighter for the Constitutional Rights of all Americans, while ensuring the Highest Levels of National Security, and PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH.”

Ratcliffe eventually served as one of Trump’s directors of national intelligence but faced a rocky path to the position.

Trump in 2019 withdrew his nomination after pushback over concerns that Ratcliffe did not have a sufficient security background or relevant experience to lead an office that coordinates all U.S. intelligence agencies. He also faced questions over whether he had embellished his experience working terrorism cases as a former prosecutor. 

“Our great Republican Congressman John Ratcliffe is being treated very unfairly by the LameStream Media,” Trump wrote at the time.

Trump nominated him again just a few months later, prompting backlash from Democrats.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) called Ratcliffe a “highly partisan operative” while then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) complained he “has shown an unacceptable embrace of conspiracy theories.”

He was ultimately confirmed in a party-line 49-44 vote.

Ratcliffe was a regular critic of the FBI and Justice Department before entering the intelligence community.

Trump’s nod to Ratcliffe’s position on foreign surveillance, governed by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, comes after the then-lawmaker was a vocal critic of the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane investigation into Trump, including the bureau's flawed process for securing a warrant to wiretap Carter Page.

On Tuesday, Trump credited Ratcliffe with “catching the FBI’s abuse of Civil Liberties at the FISA Court.”

Updated at 6:22 p.m. EST