Ratcliffe withdraws from consideration for Director of National Intelligence

According to the Associated Press “President Donald Trump’s pick for National Intelligence Director, Texas Rep. John Ratcliffe, withdrew from consideration Friday after just five days as he faced growing questions about his experience and qualifications.”

Trey Gowdy the chairmen of the House Oversight Committee spoke on Fox News’ Morning Futures, refutes the questions of qualifications by comparing Kathleen Harris’ time on the senate, “white only member of the senate that is on Intel, Judiciary and their version of Homeland Security, John Ratcliffe is the only member of the house who is on those same committees,” going on to say that Ratcliffe and Harris are both prosecuting attorneys with Ratcliffe having a longer tenure.

CNN’s Senior National Correspondent Alex Marquardt and several other media outlets questioned his bio, saying that Ratcliff ’s claims that he put terrorists in prison cannot be substantiated, feeding of an ABC and NBC News reports. ABC News reported that it found no public records tying Ratcliffe to the two trials involved in the case and that officials involved in the investigation did not recall him having a role. NBC News disputed Ratcliffe’s assertion that he “put terrorists in prison.” - Shira Tarlo, Salon.

In response to the ABC News and NBC News reports, Ratcliffe spokeswoman Rachel Stephens said Monday that the congressman’s status regarding the case was instead related to investigating issues surrounding what led to the mistrial in the first case.

“Because the investigation did not result in any charges, it would not be in accordance with Department of Justice policies to make further details public,” Stephens said in a statement to ABC News. “However, Department of Justice records will confirm that as both chief of anti-terrorism and national security for the Eastern District of Texas from 2004-2008, John Ratcliffe opened, managed and supervised numerous domestic and international terrorism-related cases.”

President Trump announced on two separate Twitter posts on August 2, that, “Our great Republican Congressman John Ratcliffe is being treated very unfairly by the LameStream Media. Rather than going through months of slander and libel, I explained to John how miserable it would be for him and his family to deal with these people....”

“....John has therefore decided to stay in Congress where he has done such an outstanding job representing the people of Texas, and our Country. I will be announcing my nomination for DNI shortly.”

Ratcliffe explained his position in a press release he sent out by saying, “While I am and will remain very grateful to the President for his intention to nominate me as Director of National Intelligence, I am withdrawing from consideration. I was humbled and honored that the President put his trust in me to lead our nation’s intelligence operations and remain convinced that when confirmed, I would have done so with the objectivity, fairness, and integrity that our intelligence agencies need and deserve. However, 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.”

Rep. Ratcliffe will now continue on as the U.S. Representative for the fourth congressional district of Texas, which covers 18 counties in the Northeast region of the state, including Cass County.