President-elect Donald Trump has appointed John Ratcliffe as his CIA director, according to a statement he released Tuesday. To be sure, Ratcliffe is a Texas conservative and former intelligence official whose views on policy issues are contentious in the extreme, but in terms of structure, he can be expected to play a key role in defining the future intelligence community under Trump.
A Controversial Figure with Intelligence Experience
No surprise, Ratcliffe was rumored to be one of the top contenders to head the office of the attorney general well ahead of the consideration for this role. As a co-chair of the think tank close to Trump’s America First Policy Institute, Center for American Security, Ratcliffe has enjoyed a life-time experience in intelligence and national security.
Between 2020 and 2021, Ratcliffe served two years as DNI under Trump. This appointment, coming when he became the head of intelligence, was akin to mixed reviews as many felt that Donald Trump was politicizing the intelligence community. Public release by Ratcliffe of unverified information on Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election really raised eyebrows, particularly since other officials in the intelligence world asked others to defer the same. This energized criticisms that Ratcliffe was applying his position to further political interests of the Trump campaign at a time when the election of 2020 was just around the corner.
Role In 2020 Election and After
Ratcliffe served his term throughout the 2020 presidential election and the transition period that ensued. For weeks, Ratcliffe repeatedly played a salutary role in soothing Trump and his acolytes, even as accusations of wholesale foreign interference and voter fraud piled up, there was still no proof of these claims. He’s since become a central figure being investigated over the post-election period, as Ratcliffe was compelled to testify before a federal grand jury in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s inquiry into the handling of the aftermath of the 2020 election.
This could well be while his appointment for the CIA director role is still on the way to confirmation, but in any case, Ratcliffe’s history in intelligence will shape how he oversees the agency: CIA, the critical agency in U.S. national security.
(Includes inputs from online sources)
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