Looks Like DNI Nominee John Ratcliffe May Have Told One (Or Five) Little Fibs About His Résumé

Whoopsie!

U.S. Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX) (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Texas Congressman John Ratcliffe represents a safe Republican district where he routinely cruises to victory with margins approaching 50 percent. This might explain how he got away with telling a pile of whoppers about his time in the U.S. Attorney’s Office — with no real opponent, there was no one to check. But politics ain’t beanbag, and now that Trump has nominated Ratcliffe to replace Dan Coates as the Director of National Intelligence, the media is starting to dig.

Even before the revelations about Ratcliffe’s history of exaggerations, he was already facing criticism for his thin national security résumé.

Previous DNIs had significant military, foreign relations, and intelligence experience under their belts. But Trump, who describes the intelligence agencies as having “run amok,” clearly values Ratcliffe’s full-throated attacks on the very intelligence apparatus he’s nominated to supervise.

On March 24, Ratcliffe told Fox’s Maria Bartiromo, “Think about that, a dossier funded by the Democrats, peddled through the Obama intelligence community, falsely verified by the Obama Justice Department, then sold to the American people by those very same elected Democrats and willing folks in the media,” perpetuating the lie that Christopher Steele’s dossier was the basis for the entire Russia investigation, and thus the Mueller report is somehow fruit of the poison tree.

So, aside from his time as mayor of the Texas town of Heath, population 7,000, what national security experience does Ratcliffe bring to the table? Well, in 2004, President Bush appointed him Chief of Anti-Terrorism and National Security for the Eastern District of Texas. Which sounds highly impressive, and, indeed, his House website boasts that the Congressman “put terrorists in prison.” But as the New York Times points out, the only terrorism prosecution during Ratcliffe’s tenure appears to have been an Iraq-war veteran with PTSD charged with building a pipe bomb.

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Ratcliffe has faced repeated criticism for overstating his role in the prosecution of a domestic group accused of funding Hamas bombers. A 2015 press release posted on his House website says, “When serving by special appointment in U.S. v. Holy Land Foundation, he convicted individuals who were funneling money to Hamas behind the front of a charitable organization.” Except the Holy Land Foundation prosecution took place in the Northern District of Texas, and Ratcliffe’s sole contribution appears to have been a retrospective examination of what went wrong with the first disastrous prosecution which resulted in an embarrassing mistrial. (The defendants were later convicted on retrial.) So, no, the Congressman did not “convict” anyone in this case.

Finally, Ratcliffe’s official bio claims that he “arrested 300 illegal aliens in a single day.” No doubt this is intended to evoke images of a steely-eyed lawman slapping the cuffs on criminal after criminal with his own giant hands. But Ratcliffe would have had to be able to bend the space time continuum to be present for simultaneous raids on Pilgrim’s Pride poultry plants in Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Arkansas, and West Virginia. The number of people he arrested was actually … ZERO. But we’re sure the hatred for undocumented immigrants is real.

In normal times, these false claims might sink a nominee. But these are not normal times. The Times reports that Senate Intelligence Chair Richard Burr privately counseled the White House against nominating someone who has  already politicized the process by accusing the intelligence community of “spying” on Trump’s campaign. And Ratcliffe’s thin CV isn’t helping, either. But now that the nomination is official, Burr has changed his tune and pledged to support Trump’s guy. So, barring any major scandal breaking, it’s a safe bet Ratcliffe can scrounge up 50 votes.

No doubt Susan Collins will express concern, John Kennedy will play the maverick for a hot second, Martha McSally will truly wrestle with her decision, Mitt Romney will give it serious consideration, and then they’ll all vote “yes.” Third verse, same as the first.

Trump’s Pick for Top Intelligence Post Overstated Parts of His Biography [New York Times]
Trump’s Pick for Intelligence Director Misrepresented Role in Anti-Terror Case [ABC News]
Ratcliffe Questioned Intelligence Community’s Role in Russia Investigation [CNN]
Trump’s Nominee to Lead America’s Intelligence Agencies Has an Unusually Thin Résumé [Washington Post]

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Elizabeth Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.