John Ratcliffe (American politician)

John Ratcliffe (American politician)

John Lee Ratcliffe is the Director of National Intelligence in the Trump administration. He previously served as the Representative for Texas’s 4th district from 2015 to 2020. He was elected to four consecutive two-year terms as mayor of Heath, Texas, a city of about 7,000 people, 25 miles east of downtown Dallas.

About John Ratcliffe (American politician) in brief

Summary John Ratcliffe (American politician)John Lee Ratcliffe is the Director of National Intelligence in the Trump administration. He previously served as the Representative for Texas’s 4th district from 2015 to 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 DNI. Ratcliffe withdrew after Republican senators raised concerns about him, former intelligence officials said he might politicize intelligence, and media revealed Ratcliffe’s embellishments regarding his prosecutorial experience in terrorism and immigration cases. On February 28, 2020, President Trump announced that he would againnominate Ratcliffe, and after Senate approval, he resigned from the House, and was sworn in on May 26. He was elected to four consecutive two-year terms as mayor of Heath, Texas, a city of about 7,000 people, 25 miles east of downtown Dallas. He served in that position from June 2004 to May 2012. In 2004, President George W. Bush appointed Ratcliffe as the Chief of Anti-Terrorism and National Security for the Eastern District of Texas, within the U.S. Department of Justice. He 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. In 2009, he became a partner with former Attorney General John Ashcroft in the law firm Ashcroft, Sutton and Ratcliffe.

At 91, Ratcliff was the oldest member of Congress and the oldest person ever to serve in the House of Representatives. The Dallas Morning News said that while working as prosecutor for theEastern District, he “arrested 300 illegal aliens in a single day” There is, however, no evidence Ratcliffe ever prosecuted a terrorism case. The Washington Post noted in a story about how Ratcliffe embellished his record that Ratcliffe played a supporting role in an effort to bust illegal immigrants and that his office arrested only 45 individuals suspected of being illegal immigrants. Officials involved in the immigration enforcement dispute Ratcliffe’s central role in the raid. In November 2014, the Washington Post said that at 91 Ratclift was “the oldest person to ever serve’ in the United States House.’’ In November 2016, the New York Times said Ratcliffe “is the most serious political challenge that Democrat Ralph Hall has even filed in years’ even though Hall is all but assured of victory in the primary.” In November 2008, the Daily Mail said that “ Ratcliffe finished second behind Hall with 29 percent of the vote, up from 45 percent in the March 4, 2014, primary. “In November 2008,. Ratcliffe came up short of a majority of 45 percent of a vote, but cited Hall’s long record of public service but cited the need for ‘new ideas and fresh energy’ and ‘impressive credentials’ as his reason for running’