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President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate former Texas congressman John Ratcliffe as director of the Central Intelligence Agency, the Trump-Vance transition team announced Tuesday.

A fierce defender of the president-elect, Ratcliffe represented Texas’ 4th Congressional District in the northeastern part of the state until he was tapped to serve as Trump’s director of national intelligence in 2020. His congressional seat was filled by U.S. Representative Pat Fallon. , R-Sherman.

“John Ratcliffe has always been a fighter for truth and honesty with the American public,” Trump said in a statement. “He will be a fearless fighter for the constitutional rights of all Americans while safeguarding the highest levels of national security and peace through strength.”

The Republican-controlled Senate will have to confirm Ratcliffe’s nomination when Trump takes office.

If confirmed, Ratcliffe would become the first person to lead both the CIA and national intelligence, according to the announcement. The CIA director manages the agency’s activities — including intelligence collection, foreign threat analysis and covert action campaigns — and reports to the director of national intelligence, who oversees the broader U.S. intelligence community.

Ratcliffe earned a reputation as one of Trump’s closest allies on Capitol Hill. He defended the president during his impeachment hearings, helped spark investigations into Hunter Biden and gained notoriety for berating former special counsel Robert Mueller during a congressional hearing.

He is one of the first Texans tapped by Trump to serve in his second administration, from a long list of Texas Republicans with close ties to the president-elect.

Trump on Tuesday also appointed billionaire Elon Musk, who lives in Texas, to lead a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) together with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. DOGE, Trump said, would provide “advice and guidance from outside the government” to “achieve sweeping structural reforms and create an entrepreneurial approach to government never seen before.”

Ratcliffe’s initial nomination to head of national intelligence was scuttled in 2019 after he withdrew his name from consideration amid a report by The Washington Post that he had exaggerated parts of his biography, including his role as leader of an immigration agency actions while he was a federal prosecutor. in the Eastern District of Texas. Democrats also opposed his nomination, arguing that he was not qualified to oversee the intelligence community and expressing concern that he would use the position to Trump’s political advantage.

Ratcliffe’s nomination as director of national intelligence received support from Republicans, including U.S. Senator John Cornyn, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who said at the time that Ratcliffe had the “personal integrity and intelligence to understand the difference between being a lawmaker and being the Director of National Intelligence.”

Ratcliffe defended his record, and Trump made him available for the job again just months after removing himself from contention. He was confirmed by the Senate in 2020, 49-44.

“John has done a fantastic job as DNI and I am confident he will lead the CIA better than anyone in history,” Fallon said in a text message Tuesday after the announcement.

In June 2022, the US House committee investigating the events leading up to the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol revealed that Ratcliffe had warned White House staffers about attempts to overturn the 2020 election ahead of the revolt.

“It felt like it was dangerous to the president’s legacy,” former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson said of Ratcliffe’s mentality in testimony before the panel. “He had said to me that he was concerned that it could get out of hand and possibly be dangerous to our democracy or to the way things would proceed on January 6.”

Ratcliffe was hired in 2004 as an assistant federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Texas, where he was named head of the anti-terrorism division. He was also elected mayor of Heath, a suburb just east of Dallas, where he had started a law practice.