John Ratcliffe

Early work (1989–2004)

After graduating from Southern Methodist University, Ratcliffe worked as a lawyer, a mediator, and a law professor.^[10]

Mayor of Heath (2004–2012)

In May 2004, Ratcliffe was elected to serve as the mayor of Heath, Texas, winning seventy percent of the vote in a three-way race.^[11] He was sworn in the following month.^[12] Ratcliffe was re-elected in May 2006 without opposition,^[13] as well as in 2008 and 2010.^[11] According to the Rockwall County Herald-Banner, Ratcliffe ensured that Heath's tax rate remained constant, and its financial ratings improved. In February 2012, he announced that he would not run for re-election, citing his legal and political engagements.^[11] Ratcliffe swore in his successor on May 14.^[14]

Bush administration positions (2004–2008)

In December 2004,^[15] Ratcliffe joined the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Texas^[5] as the director of anti-terrorism and national security in the Bush administration.^[16] He additionally served on the Advisory Subcommittee on National Security within the United States Department of Justice.^[16] In January 2005, Ratcliffe was appointed as an assistant U.S. attorney for anti-terrorism.^[10] According to The New York Times, Ratcliffe embellished his role in prosecuting terrorism cases. In one case, he claimed that he had tried suspects who allegedly funneled money to Hamas; Ratcliffe had only investigated.aspects of the case after a mistrial and did not prosecute either the first or second trials.^[17]

In April 2007, Matthew D. Orwig, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, announced that he would leave his position for private practice. The following month, Ratcliffe was sworn in as his acting successor as Orwig's first assistant. He was additionally a candidate to be nominated for the position.^[18] Ratcliffe led the prosecution of hundreds of Pilgrim's Pride workers suspected of being illegal immigrants who were arrested in April 2008.^[19] He presided over the prosecution of the personal trainer David Jacobs.^[20] Ratcliffe resigned the following month after Rebecca Gregory was confirmed to the position.^[21] By October 2008, he had become a consultant to the United States government on counterterrorism.^[22]

Legal and political activities (2009–2014)

In April 2009, Ratcliffe established a law firm alongside former attorney general John Ashcroft and former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas Johnny Sutton.^[23] The firm, operating as the Ashcroft Law Firm in Washington and Ashcroft Sutton and Ratcliffe in Texas,^[24] was affiliated with The Ashcroft Group.^[25] Prior to the 2012 presidential election, Ratcliffe advised former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's transition team on government nominees and appointees.^[26]

Initial campaign

On December 9, 2013, hours before the deadline, Ratcliffe filed as a candidate in the United States House of Representatives election for Texas's fourth congressional district. The Dallas Morning News described Ratcliffe's unexpected candidacy as the "most serious political challenge" to the district's officeholder, Ralph Hall, the oldest person to have ever served in the House of Representatives;^[27] According to The Atlantic, John Ashcroft encourage Ratcliffe to run.^[8] Ratcliffe told the News that he would not hold Hall's age as a significant issue in his campaign,^[27] a strategy The New York Times attributed to appealing to older voters.^[4] He additionally described himself as Hall's successor to the News. Within a week of declaring his candidacy, Ratcliffe garnered US$50,000 in individual donations.^[28]

By January 2014, he had become the most prominent opponent to Hall.^[29] That month, Ratcliffe committed over US$400,000 of his personal funds into his campaign.^[30] His donor network included former U.S. attorneys for president George W. Bush,^[31] and his campaign strategy focused on online marketing and analytics.^[32] In the primary election on March 4, Hall and Ratcliffe were forced into a runoff election after neither candidate garnered an outright majority of the vote.^[33] Ratcliffe defeated Hall in the runoff election on May 27.^[34] In his victory speech, Ratcliffe stated that he would leave office after eight years.^[35] He ran unopposed in the general election on November 4.^[36]

Tenure

Ratcliffe was sworn in on January 3, 2015.^[37] In his tenure, Ratcliffe was involved in various congressional hearings into individuals who conflicted with Trump. He questioned the integrity of Peter Strzok, who led the Federal Bureau of Investigation's counterintelligence investigation into links between associates of president Donald Trump and Russian officials, before the bureau's director, Christopher A. Wray.^[38] Ratcliffe later alleged that Strzok and Lisa Page, a bureau official with whom he had an extramarrital affair, had a "manifest bias" against Trump.^[39] He offered concerns about Strzok and the special counsel Robert Mueller's response to his apparent impropriety before deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein.^[40]

In the impeachment inquiry into Trump, Ratcliffe emerged as a defender of Trump. As the impeachment trial neared in January 2020, advisors to Trump considered appointing Ratcliffe to formally defend Trump.^[41] Ratcliffe had been expected to join Trump's defense team alongside Ohio representative Jim Jordan and Georgia representative Doug Collins until Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell intervened.^[42]

Committee assignments

Ratcliffe was assigned to the House Committees on the Judiciary and on Homeland Security in January 2015. In the latter, he chaired the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection.^[37] Ratcliffe served on the Task Force on Combating Terrorist and Foreign Fighter Travel, a consortium assembled to discuss Americans leaving the United States to fight in the Iraqi and Syrian civil wars.^[43] Ratcliffe was named to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in January 2019.^[44]

First nomination

In December 2018, The Washington Post reported that Ratcliffe was among several candidates being considered to succeed Jeff Sessions as attorney general,^[45] an indication that he had been supported by allies of president Donald Trump.^[46] In July 2019, tensions between Trump and director of national intelligence Dan Coats—who frequently contradicted him on matters of foreign adversaries—mounted after Coats criticized Trump's relationship with Russian president Vladimir Putin.^[47] In July 2019, Axios reported that Trump had expressed eagerness in removing Coats.^[48] That month, Trump met with Ratcliffe about succeeding Coats. According to The New York Times, Trump was later appealed by Ratcliffe's performance in the special counsel Robert Mueller's testimony to Congress, in which Ratcliffe strictly chastised Mueller over the Mueller report—including allegations that the report had been written by allies of Hillary Clinton—and ardently defended Trump. On July 28, Trump publicly named Ratcliffe as his nominee for director of national intelligence.^[49] Trump later stated that the intelligence community had "run amok" and that Ratcliffe would "rein it in".^[50]

Ratcliffe's close association with Trump elicited concerns from several Republicans in the Senate, particularly North Carolina senator Richard Burr, the chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Democrats on the committee suggested that he would not sufficiently scrutinize the Durham special counsel investigation and would not affirm the assessments of intelligence analysts against Trump's beliefs.^[51] Ratcliffe's nomination was further complicated by his lack of prominence; several Republicans, including some in leadership positions, told Politico that they had either never heard of him or had only seen him on television.^[52] He faced additional questions over allegations that he had exaggerated his tenure as a federal prosecutor, and he was rebuked for his relative inexperience for the position. On August 2, Trump announced that he would not nominate Ratcliffe as the director of national intelligence, citing press coverage. Ratcliffe stated on social media that he had chosen to withdraw his nomination.^[53] According to Axios, Ratcliffe decided to withdraw his nomination, believing that the criticism was unexpected and that his confirmation was not guaranteed.^[46]

Second nomination and confirmation

On February 28, 2020, Trump nominated Ratcliffe to serve as the director of national intelligence.^[54] Richard Burr indicated that he would seek to have Ratcliffe appear before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, expressing discontent with having an acting director lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence; Trump had appointed Richard Grenell as the acting director earlier that month.^[54] Ratcliffe's nomination allowed Grenell to remain in the position indefinitely, a maneuver that ensured the director of national intelligence would be a Trump loyalist for possibly several months.^[6] According to The New York Times, Ratcliffe was given the assurance that he would be able to appoint his own officials. The agreement conflicted with Trump's intention to install the businessman Steve Feinberg in a high-level position within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.^[55] Despite remaining concerns regarding Ratcliffe's partisanship and qualifications, his second nomination was considered to be easier than his first; Grenell's aggressive tenure and the COVID-19 pandemic—particularly claims from Trump allies that COVID-19 began in a lab—gave urgency to a permanent director.^[56]

Ratcliffe appeared before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on May 5.^[57] His confirmation hearing was the first in-person convention of senators in over a month^[56] and the first to employ social distancing measures imposed after the COVID-19 began.^[57] Ratcliffe largely refused to affirm his stance on several contentious issues, including Trump's dismissals of inspectors general that began weeks prior and whether the Russian government had colluded with Trump's 2016 campaign. Many of the committee's Democrats remained opposed to Ratcliffe; Virginia senator Mark Warner, the ranking member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, stated that it was insufficient that his primary qualification appeared to be that he was not Grenell.^[57] On May 19, the committee voted to approve Ratcliffe's nomination in an 8–7 vote along party lines.^[58] The Senate voted to confirm Ratcliffe in a 49–44 along party lines on May 21. Ratcliffe was the first director of national intelligence to receive no support from the opposition party since the position was established in 2004.^[59]

Tenure

Ratcliffe was sworn in as the director of national intelligence on May 26, 2020.^[60] His tenure was marked by a political shift in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence; Marc E. Polymeropoulos, a former intelligence officer, told The New York Times that the presence of a high-ranking "politicized" intelligence official was unprecedented.^[61] In one of his initial acts, Ratcliffe declassified transcripts of an intercepted call between Michael Flynn, the former national security advisor, and a Russian diplomat.^[62] In August, he moved to end briefings to Congress on foreign threats to the 2020 presidential election.^[63] The decision limited the public's knowledge of threats to the election.^[64] That month, he told Fox News that China, not Russia presented a greater threat to the 2020 election.^[65] In the weeks preceding the 2020 presidential election, Ratcliffe warned of Iranian interference in the election.^[66]

In June 2020, Ratcliffe sought a declassification review and an unredacted copy of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence's report on Russian interference from 2018. The report—owing to the presence of sensitive information—was kept in a lockbox at the George Bush Center for Intelligence, the Central Intelligence Agency's headquarters. Ratcliffe visited the facility in August to read the documents.^[61] The following month, he declassified U.S. intelligence that deceptively suggested Hillary Clinton had approved a plan to damage Trump's 2016 campaign by associating him with Russian hackers responsible for the 2016 Democratic National Committee email leak.^[67] According to The New York Times, Gina Haspel, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, opposed the move, believing it could endanger sources and expose the agency's methods of gathering intelligence; Ratcliffe and Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, overrided her objections. The documents served as the basis for a conspiracy theory disparaging Clinton. Trump referenced the theory in his first debate against Joe Biden.^[61] South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham additionally used the theory to question James Comey, the former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.^[68]

In the Trump administration, Ratcliffe served as a supportive figure whom Trump trusted, particularly relative to Haspel and Christopher A. Wray, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Beginning in September, Trump ceased receiving briefings from his designated briefer, Beth Sanner, instead favoring meetings with Ratcliffe multiple times per week; the shift towards Ratcliffe occurred as Trump campaigned in the 2020 election and as a COVID-19 outbreak within the White House spread to his allies.^[69] In October, Politico reported that Ratcliffe had went off-script when he had detailed that Iranian interference in the election was intended to "damage President Trump".^[70] He privately promoted the assessment accusing China of influence to Trump, a claim that was later in conflict with other intelligence reports.^[71] Ratcliffe's insertion of text warning about China in a classified document was deemed an "outrageous misrepresentation" of information compiled by analysts, according to Barry A. Zulauf, the analytic ombudsman in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.^[72]

In January 2021, Phil Waldron, a retired United States Army colonel, alleged on a podcast that Trump would be able to declare a national emergency and seize voting machines using Ratcliffe's accusations towards China. The document was delayed amid a dispute concerning China's role in the election.^[73] The plan was supported by Flynn. Ratcliffe and his aides were unaware of Waldron and Flynn's intentions until the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol began investigating the claim.^[74] Meadows blocked Flynn's attempt to reach Ratcliffe.^[75] According to testimony from the political aide Cassidy Hutchinson, Ratcliffe told her that Trump knew he lost but that he did not want to concede the election to Biden.^[76] Ratcliffe was compelled to testify in Trump's election obstruction case.^[77]

Nomination and confirmation

In July 2024, Axios reported that Ratcliffe had been considered as Donald Trump's director of the Central Intelligence Agency in his second term.^[81] Punchbowl News reported previously that Trump had been heavily considering nominating Ratcliffe for the latter position.^[82] On November 12, Trump named Ratcliffe as his nominee for director of the Central Intelligence Agency.^[83] He appeared before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on January 15. In his opening statement, Ratcliffe stated that he would lead the Central Intelligence Agency to be non-partisan, aggressive, and less risk-averse.^[84] Democrats objected to Ratcliffe's nomination and sought to delay it.^[85] The Senate voted to confirm Ratcliffe in a 74–25 vote; twenty Democrats joined Republicans in confirming him.^[86]

Intelligence disclosures and mass firings

After being confirmed as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Ratcliffe told Breitbart News that he favored the COVID-19 lab leak theory. Hours later, the agency released an assessment affirming the theory.^[87] Ratcliffe was involved in negotiating the prisoner exchange between the Russian entrepreneur Alexander Vinnik and the American schoolteacher Marc Fogel,^[88] as well as Russo-Ukrainian peace negotiations.^[89] After Trump ordered the declassification of files relating to the assassination of president John F. Kennedy, Ratcliffe informed officials in the Trump administration that some documents were unrelated to Kennedy.^[90]

In February 2025, Ratcliffe extended the federal deferred resignation program to the Central Intelligence Agency, encouraging older employees who joined following the September 11 attacks to retire in favor of younger workers.^[91] The program conflicted with Ratcliffe's intent for the agency to shift its efforts towards countering China.^[92] Ratcliffe's efforts to fire officers intensified in March after a federal judge ruled that he had the authority to dismiss employees at will.^[93] That month, Elon Musk met with Ratcliffe to discuss "government efficiency" efforts at the Central Intelligence Agency.^[94] In May, The Washington Post reported that the agency intended to cut over one thousand positions within Trump's term.^[95] The firings affected diversity efforts at the Central Intelligence Agency that had been established in an attempt to reach more robust conclusions and improve covert operations.^[96]

In March 2025, Ratcliffe testified before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on a Signal group chat for discussing imminent strikes in Yemen that month. The chat's contents were leaked by The Atlantic's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who was accidentally added as a member. Ratcliffe, who participated in the group chat, told the committee that his use of Signal was "lawful".^[97] He appeared before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence the following day, continuing to state that he had not committed wrongdoing.^[98] In response to a lawsuit filed by the watchdog organization American Oversight seeking to preserve the contents of the group chat, the Central Intelligence Agency said in a court filing that Ratcliffe's messages could not be retrieved because they had been deleted from his phone; although the group chat's settings had been changed to automatically remove messages, prior chats from Ratcliffe would have needed to be manually deleted.^[99]

Foreign operations and election counterinvestigation

After taking office, Ratcliffe ordered a review of the Central Intelligence Agency's assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 elections. In July 2025, the agency determined that John O. Brennan had hastened the investigation, but did not dispute its conclusion. After the Central Intelligence Agency's review, Ratcliffe claimed on social media that Brennan and James Comey, the former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had negatively affected the quality of the assessment.^[100] According to The New York Times, Ratcliffe referred Brennan to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for criminal prosecution over statements he made to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence; Brennan's testimony, then over seven years old, appeared to exceed the statute of limitations for possible charges.^[101] In August, the bureau raided the home of John Bolton, the former national security advisor, using limited intelligence that Ratcliffe provided to its director, Kash Patel.^[102]

As early as February 2025, Ratcliffe was involved in discussions over Iran's nuclear program. Following Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to the United States that month, Trump directed Ratcliffe to meet with Netanyahu and Mossad director David Barnea in Israel.^[103] Ratcliffe discussed possible covert actions against Iran with Netanyahu and Israeli intelligence officials in May.^[104] At Camp David, Ratcliffe briefed Trump that an Israeli attack on Iran was imminent in June.^[105] That month, he told Trump in a White House classified meeting that Iran was close to obtaining a nuclear weapon.^[106] After the United States struck Iranian nuclear sites, Ratcliffe claimed that the strikes had "severely damaged" Iran's nuclear program.^[107]

In September 2025, The New York Times reported that Ratcliffe had supported secretary of state Marco Rubio's campaign to oust Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.^[108] Ratcliffe was involved in authorizing covert action in Venezuela.^[109] After U.S. forces raided the country and seized Maduro, Ratcliffe met with acting president Delcy Rodríguez in Caracas, a move believed to bolster Veneuzela's government rather than its opposition.^[110] Ratcliffe was involved in military planning in preparation for a war with Iran,^[111] particularly presenting tactics alongside Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.^[112] In testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Ratcliffe refused to say whether Iran would be capable of launching long-range missiles within six months^[113] but reserved that Iran had been a "constant threat" and posed an "immediate threat".^[114]

Domestic affairs

In his initial campaign in the 2014 United States House of Representatives election for Texas's fourth congressional district, Ratcliffe ran as a libertarian conservative in opposition to broad government spending, including the Affordable Care Act.^[29] His campaign advertisements included a promotion in which Ratcliffe vowed to "stand up" to president Barack Obama's policies.^[115] In August 2015, Ratcliffe criticized the expansion of the national debt and attributed it to the enlargement of the federal government. He proposed bills to eliminate the Open World program and repeal the establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.^[116] Ratcliffe voted against disaster relief in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.^[117]

Ratcliffe endorsed Texas senator Ted Cruz for the 2016 presidential election in 2015.^[118] He later supported Donald Trump after Cruz's loss in the Republican Party presidential primaries. Ratcliffe called for an investigation into the Hillary Clinton email controversy and the Clinton Foundation–State Department controversy.^[119] Ratcliffe is considered to be a Trump ally.^[120] Although Ratcliffe opposed the American Health Care Act, he switched his support after Trump said he would support the bill.^[121] He supported Trump's decision to fire the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, James Comey.^[122]

In March 2014, Ratcliffe expressed his support for jailing—as opposed to deporting—illegal immigrants.^[123] He co-sponsored Kate's Law, a bill that would cease funding for sanctuary cities.^[124] In July 2017, Ratcliffe signed a letter urging Republican leadership to hold a vote on Trump's additions to the Mexico–United States border wall.^[125]

National security issues

As chair of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection, Ratcliffe advocated for partnerships with state and local governments on cybersecurity.^[126] After the Twitter account of the United States Central Command was compromised by sympathizers of the Islamic State, he called for a national cyber strategy.^[127] Alongside Texas representative Michael McCaul, the chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, Ratcliffe proposed the National Cybersecurity Protection Act, a bill that would increase liability protections for companies that interface with the government. The bill was supported by the Obama administration.^[128]

Foreign policy

In August 2015, Ratcliffe criticized the foreign policy of the United States, citing the proliferation of Islamic State militants and the apparent dominance of Russia against the United States.^[116] He supported the 2017 Nangarhar airstrike.^[129]

In November 2024, Ratcliffe advocated for assisting Israel in the Gaza war and its conflict with Hezbollah.^[130]

2014

2016

2018