John Ratcliffe
John Lee Ratcliffe is an American politician and attorney who has served as the ninth director of the Central Intelligence Agency since 2025. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the sixth director of national intelligence from 2020 to 2021 and served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2015 to 2020.
After graduating from law school, Ratcliffe worked as a lawyer in private practice until 2004. Ratcliffe served as mayor of Heath, Texas, from 2004 to 2012 and acting United States attorney for the Eastern District of Texas from May 2007 to April 2008. Ratcliffe was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 2014, representing Texas's 4th district until 2020.
During his time in Congress, Ratcliffe was regarded as one of the most conservative members. President Donald Trump announced on July 28, 2019, that he intended to nominate Ratcliffe to replace Dan Coats as director of national intelligence. Ratcliffe withdrew after Republican senators raised concerns about him, former intelligence officials said he might politicize intelligence, and reports in the media revealed Ratcliffe's embellishments regarding his prosecutorial experience in terrorism and immigration cases.
On February 28, 2020, Trump announced that he would again nominate Ratcliffe to be director of national intelligence, and after Senate approval, he resigned from the House, and was sworn in on May 26. On November 12, 2024, president-elect Trump announced that he would nominate Ratcliffe to be the director of the CIA. He was confirmed by the Senate on January 23, by a vote of 74–25, and assumed office later that day.
Early life and education
Born in Mount Prospect, Illinois, northwest of Chicago, Ratcliffe was the youngest of six children; both of his parents were teachers. He graduated from Carbondale Community High School in Carbondale, Illinois; from the University of Notre Dame in 1986 with a Bachelor of Arts in government and international studies; and the Southern Methodist University School of Law with a Juris Doctor in 1989.Career
After graduating from law school, Ratcliffe was a lawyer in private practice; he left his law firm in 2004 to join the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas. Ratcliffe was elected to four consecutive two-year terms as mayor of Heath, Texas, a city of about 7,000 people located 25 miles east of downtown Dallas. He served in that position from June 2004 to May 2012.Eastern District of Texas
In 2004, president George W. Bush appointed Ratcliffe to be the chief of anti-terrorism and national security for the Eastern District of Texas, within the U.S. Department of Justice. In May 2007, Ratcliffe was named interim U.S. attorney for the district. Ratcliffe returned to private law practice when Rebecca Gregory was confirmed by the Senate as the permanent U.S. attorney for the district in April 2008.Ratcliffe's campaign website said that, as a federal prosecutor Ratcliffe "personally managed dozens of international and domestic terrorism investigations involving some of the nation’s most sensitive security matters" and "put terrorists in prison."
2009–2014
In 2009, Ratcliffe became a partner with former attorney general John Ashcroft in the law firm Ashcroft, Sutton, Ratcliffe. In 2012, Ratcliffe was part of a transition team, established before that year's general election by Republican candidate Mitt Romney, to vet potential presidential appointees.U.S. House of Representatives (2015–2020)
2014 election
In late 2013, Ratcliffe announced that he would run in the Republican primary against 17-term incumbent congressman Ralph Hall of the 4th district. The Dallas Morning News said that Ratcliffe was Hall's "most serious political challenge in years." Ratcliffe received the endorsement of the Dallas Morning News, which applauded Hall's long record of public service but cited Ratcliffe's "impressive credentials" and the need for "new ideas and fresh energy."In the March 4 primary, Ratcliffe finished second with 29 percent of the vote, behind Hall's 45 percent. Because Hall came up short of a majority, a runoff election was required. For the May 27 runoff, Ratcliffe was endorsed by the Tea Party Express, the Senate Conservatives Fund, and the Club for Growth. Hall was endorsed by the NRA Political Victory Fund, former congressman Ron Paul, former congresswoman Michele Bachmann, and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. Ratcliffe defeated Hall with 53 percent of the vote, the first time in twenty years that a sitting Republican congressman in Texas had been ousted in a primary. Ratcliffe was one of four candidates to defeat a sitting incumbent U.S. representative in a primary election in 2014.
In the November 2014 general election, Ratcliffe ran unopposed. With a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+25, it is the fifth most Republican district in Texas and is tied for the 13th most Republican in the nation.
2016 election
On March 1, 2016, Ratcliffe easily defeated two challengers in the Republican primary, getting 68 percent of the vote, 47 percentage points ahead of the second-place finisher. Once again, no Democrat filed to run in the November general election. In the general election, Ratcliffe defeated a third-party candidate with 88% of the vote.2018 election
On November 6, 2018, Ratcliffe won re-election to a third term with nearly 76 percent of the vote, defeating Democratic challenger Catherine Krantz and Libertarian challenger Ken Ashby.Tenure
When Ratcliffe took office on January 3, 2015, he became only the fifth person to represent the 4th District since its creation in 1903. All but one of his predecessors had held the seat for at least 25 years. The Dallas Morning News said in April 2016 that "Ratcliffe's first term in Washington proves that freshman lawmakers can be players of consequence in Congress."In a September 2016 hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, Ratcliffe questioned then-FBI director James Comey about whether the FBI's decision not to recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton in connection with the email controversy came before or after Clinton was interviewed by investigations; Comey responded that the final decision had been made after the interviews. Ratcliffe subsequently suggested that the FBI had "predetermined the result" of the investigation. Ratcliffe was a member of the Republican Study Committee and the Congressional NextGen 9-1-1 Caucus. In late 2018, Ratcliffe was reportedly considered for the role of attorney general by the Trump administration.
Committee assignments
During the 114th Congress, Ratcliffe sat on the Judiciary and Homeland Security committees, where he was a subcommittee chair on the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies. During the 115th Congress, Ratcliffe was a member of the Ethics, Judiciary, and Homeland Security committees. Within the Homeland Security Committee, he was a member of the subcommittee on Oversight and Management Efficiency and chaired the subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection. Within the Judiciary Committee, he was a member of the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations and vice chairman of the Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law.During the 116th Congress, Ratcliffe sat on the Ethics, Judiciary and Intelligence Committees. Within the Judiciary Committee, Ratcliffe was the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security and a member of the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet. Within the Intelligence Committee, Ratcliffe was a member of the Strategic Technologies and Advanced Research Subcommittee and Intelligence and Modernization Readiness Subcommittee.
Assignment to president Trump's impeachment team
On January 20, 2020, before the Senate impeachment trial, the Trump administration named Ratcliffe as one of the congressional members of his impeachment team. Upon the announcement, Ratcliffe said, "I took an oath to defend the Constitution. This impeachment is an assault on due process. It’s an assault on the separation of powers. It's unconstitutional. I'm grateful for the opportunity to make that clear to every American during the Senate trial." Ratcliffe worked with the White House for several weeks before the Senate trial to prepare oral arguments and legal briefs. He was tapped for the position based on his legal background and effectiveness during impeachment proceedings in the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees.Director of National Intelligence (2020–2021)
Nomination and confirmation
President Donald Trump announced on July 28, 2019, that he intended to nominate Ratcliffe to replace Dan Coats as director of national intelligence. Trump expressed confidence Ratcliffe could "rein in" intelligence agencies which he asserted had "run amok". Ratcliffe had previously been named a chief of anti-terrorism and national security for the Eastern District of Texas during his time as a federal prosecutor.Ratcliffe criticized the FBI and the special counsel investigation as biased against Trump. Ratcliffe also alleged that Russian interference may have helped Trump's 2016 rival candidate Hillary Clinton more than Trump. American intelligence agencies, the Senate Intelligence Committee and Robert Mueller have maintained that Russia interfered to help Trump. A week before Trump's announcement, Ratcliffe criticized the special counsel's report for putting Trump "below the law" because “the president should have been presumed innocent until proven guilty.” Later, on a Fox News appearance, Ratcliffe noted that the special counsel investigation's report had been characterized as having been “written by what a lot of people believe was Hillary Clinton’s de facto legal team.”
Democrats argued that Ratcliffe was unqualified and too partisan to serve in such a role, while some Republicans expressed concerns about confirmation. However, Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Richard Burr and Senator John Cornyn expressed confidence in him. Democratic senators including Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and Ron Wyden, a member of the Intelligence Committee, said that Ratcliffe's only qualification for the office appeared to be "blind loyalty" to Trump, noting that he has promoted some of Trump's conspiracy theories about the Russia investigation and has called for prosecution of Trump's political enemies. Several former members of the intelligence community expressed concerns that Ratcliffe's appointment risked politicizing intelligence work. They expressed fear that with Ratcliffe as DNI, Trump would in effect be assuming personal control over the intelligence community, which would then be expected to tell him only what he wants to hear. They stressed the need for intelligence to be "candid, truthful and accurate even if it is unpleasant and does not confirm to the biases of the president".
On August 2, 2019, Trump said in a tweet that he was withdrawing Ratcliffe's name from nomination, claiming that mainstream media scrutiny of Ratcliffe was unfair, and would result in "months of slander and libel," while White House sources said that Trump had become concerned about Ratcliffe's chances for confirmation, following feedback from some Republican senators. Speaking to reporters later that day, Trump insisted the press had treated Ratcliffe unfairly, but he also stated that he liked the way the press vetted his nominees, saying "You vet for me." In his formal statement withdrawing from consideration, Ratcliffe said, "I do not wish for a national security and intelligence debate surrounding my confirmation, however untrue, to become a purely political and partisan issue. The country we all love deserves that it be treated as an American issue. Accordingly, I have asked the president to nominate someone other than me for this position."
On February 28, 2020, president Donald Trump publicly announced Ratcliffe to be his nominee for director of national intelligence. On February 29, 2020, Sen. Mark Warner, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, warned Trump against re-nominating Ratcliffe. The nomination came to the U.S. Senate on March 3, 2020. The U.S. Select Senate Committee on Intelligence held hearings on May 5, 2020, which started with a letter from former U.S. attorney general John Ashcroft in favor of the nomination. U.S. senator John Cornyn introduced Ratcliffe and supported his nomination. The committee later voted in favor of the nomination on May 19, 2020. Ratcliffe was confirmed by the Senate on May 21, 2020, by a vote of 49 to 44. He resigned from the House on May 22, and was sworn in on May 26.