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WASHINGTON (CN) — President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday that John Ratcliffe, the former director of National Intelligence and Texas congressman, would serve as CIA director in his administration.
“From exposing fake Russian collusion to be a [Hillary] Clinton campaign operation, to catching the FBI’s abuse of civil liberties as the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court], John Ratcliffe has always been a warrior for truth and honesty with the American public,” Trump said in a statement announcing the appointment.
Trump has quickly begun naming loyalists to lead key sections of his incoming administration, tapping South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem to serve as his Secretary of Homeland Security and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee as U.S. ambassador to Israel earlier on Tuesday.
Ratcliffe clearly fits that pattern, having defended Trump during his first impeachment trial related to Trump’s withholding of military aid to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden.
Ratcliffe served as Trump’s director of National Intelligence from 2020 to 2021, leading the government’s top agency in charge of acquiring foreign intelligence. Trump initially tapped Ratcliffe for the office in July 2019, but dropped the idea after key parts of his background came under scrutiny.
In his House website and campaign material, Ratcliffe said that he had tried suspects accused of funneling money to Hamas. According to a 2019 New York Times article, aides said the claim was a half-truth, as Ratcliffe had investigated side issues related to an initial mistrial and did not prosecute the case in the first or later successful second trial.
Another claim that he had arrested over 300 undocumented immigrants in a single day as a U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas was also proved an embellishment. According to a 2019 Washington Post article, Ratcliffe played a supporting role in the effort and his office arrested just 45 individuals suspected of crossing illegally, two of whom were U.S. citizens.
These hurdles only temporarily halted Ratcliffe’s appointment, eventually taking the role in May 2020 after Joe Maguire and Rick Grenell, both tapped as acting directors, stepped down.
Prior to his time as Intelligence director, Ratcliffe represented the Lone Star State’s Fourth District, which primarily consists of suburbs to the northeast of Dallas.
While in Congress, Ratcliffe served on the House Intelligence Committee, the Judiciary Committee and as a subcommittee chairman for the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity.
Trump has expressed his desire to fill his Cabinet with advisers more willing to enact his proposed policies than those in his first administration, with whom he regularly clashed with over policy differences. According to a January 2021 Brookings Institution study, 45% of Trump’s senior level appointments experienced “serial turnover.”
Ratcliffe, who would replace current CIA Director William Burns, will have to be confirmed by the Senate, where Republicans now hold a majority, with 53 seats to the Democrats’ 47. A simple majority is required for his confirmation.
However, Trump announced Sunday on Truth Social that any Republican senator aiming to succeed retiring Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell as majority leader should agree to let Trump make recess appointments.
The demand would bar Congress’s current process of entering “pro forma” sessions, even while both chambers are out of town, which is intended to prevent the president from bypassing confirmation votes.
When former President Barack Obama tried to similarly bypass Congress in 2014, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled against him. Obama had tried to make three appointments to the National Labor Relations Board while the Senate was in the previous version of the pro-forma session, where the Senate merely gaveled to order then immediately adjourned.
With three new Trump-appointed justices on the court today, it is unclear whether Trump’s plan would similarly be overturned.
Ratcliffe did not respond to a request for comment.
“I look forward to John being the first person ever to serve in both our nation’s highest intelligence positions,” Trump said in the statement. “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.”
Following Ratcliffe’s nomination, Trump announced Tuesday night he would tap Fox News host and Army veteran Pete Hegseth as secretary of Defense.
“With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice — our military will be great again, and America will never back down,” Trump said in a statement. “Nobody fights harder for the troops, and Pete will be a courageous and patriotic champion of our ‘Peace through Strength’ policy.”
Hegseth served in Iraq and Afghanistan and unsuccessfully ran for Senate in Minnesota in 2012, after which he joined Fox News.
Trump previously considered Hegseth to run the Department of Veterans Affairs before settling on David Shulkin.
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