CNN
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Donald Trump has chosen John Ratcliffe as his CIA director, the president-elect announced in a statement on Tuesday.

Ratcliffe was high on the list of potential attorney general candidates, sources told CNN.

He currently co-chairs the Center for American Security at the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-linked think tank.

The Texas conservative served as director of national intelligence from 2020 to 2021. During Trump’s first term, his nomination was a major argument for critics who believed Trump was using the intelligence community to meet his political needs. During his tenure, Ratcliffe publicly released unverified information about Russian influence in the 2016 presidential election, despite the objections of members of the intelligence community. Critics at the time alleged that Ratcliffe used intelligence to help Trump politically as the 2020 presidential election approached.

Ratcliffe remained in his position through the 2020 election and presidential transition, during which he privately told Trump and his allies that there was no evidence of foreign election interference or widespread fraud. Years later, he was forced to testify about the experience before a federal grand jury as part of Special Prosecutor Jack Smith’s criminal investigation into the aftermath of the 2020 election.

This is a developing story and will be updated.