John Lee Ratcliffe (20 October 1965-) was a member of the US House of Representatives (R-TX 4) from 3 January 2015 to 22 May 2020 (succeeding Ralph Hall and preceding Pat Fallon) and Director of National Intelligence from 26 May 2020 to 20 January 2021 (succeeding Dan Coats and preceding Avril Haines).
Biography[]
John Lee Ratcliffe was born in Mount Prospect, Illinois in 1965, and he became an adjunct professor of law at various schools before serving as Mayor of Heath, Texas from 2004 to 2012. In 2014, he was elected to the US House of Representatives as a Republican Party member. One of the most conservative members of the US Congress, Ratcliffe was nominated by President Donald Trump for the job of Director of National Intelligence after Dan Coats' resignation was announced on 28 July 2019, but Trump withdrew from this decision on 2 August 2019 after Republican senators warned Trump that he might politicize intelligence and that he embellished his prosecutorial experience in terrorism and immigration cases. On 28 February 2020, Trump reversed his stance, and Ratcliffe was confirmed by the US Senate by a vote of 49-44, being sworn in on 26 May. He was frequently criticized for using the DNI to score political points for Trump and contradicting the intelligence community's own findings, and he left office with the Trump administration in January 2020.