To: carranza2 who wrote (185301 ) 10/19/2020 5:46:30 PM From: bentway Read Replies (2) | Respond to Ratcliffe is obviously too stupid for the job. Just another partisan liar for Trump:en.wikipedia.org Donald Trump announced on July 28, 2019, that he intended to nominate Ratcliffe to replace Dan Coats as Director of National Intelligence. [7] [8] Ratcliffe withdrew after Republican senators raised concerns about him, former intelligence officials said he might politicize intelligence, and media revealed Ratcliffe's embellishments regarding his prosecutorial experience in terrorism and immigration cases. [9] [10] [11] [12] ...U.S. v. Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing case, claiming “there are individuals that currently sit in prison because I prosecuted them for funneling money to terrorist groups." [28] ABC News reported that there was no evidence in public court records that Ratcliffe was involved in the case, and that former officials and attorneys involved in the case could not recall that Ratcliffe was involved. [29] ..[30] says that while working as prosecutor for the Eastern District, he "arrested 300 illegal aliens in a single day". [31] The Washington Post noted in a story about how Ratcliffe embellished his record that Ratcliffe played a supporting role in an effort to bust illegal immigrants and that his office arrested only 45 individuals suspected of being illegal immigrants (including two who turned out to be American citizens). [32] Officials involved in the immigration enforcement dispute that Ratcliffe played a central role in the raid. [32] ..Lisa Page had confirmed to him under oath that the Obama Justice Department had ordered the FBI to not consider gross negligence charges against Hillary Clinton regarding her handling of classified material . However, the June 2018 DOJ inspector general report on the matter stated that the DOJ's analysis of the relevant statute found that the FBI evidence for such a charge was lacking, and that interpretation was consistent with "prior cases under different leadership including in the 2008 decision not to prosecute former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales for mishandling classified documents." Analysts also noted that the FBI does not charge individuals, rather the DOJ does, as Page clarified to Ratcliffe later in her testimony, but which Ratcliffe did not mention in his tweet. Fox News extensively reported Ratcliffe's account of the matter, which Trump tweeted about minutes later. [50] ..special counsel investigation's report was not written by special counsel Robert Mueller , but by "Hillary Clinton’s de facto legal team". [63] [8] ..[64] Some Republicans also privately expressed discontent with his selection and concerns about his ability to be confirmed. [65] However, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr and Senator John Cornyn expressed confidence in him. [66] [67] Democratic senators including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Ron Wyden , a member of the Intelligence Committee, said that Ratcliffe’s only qualification for the office appeared to be "blind loyalty" to Trump, noting that he has promoted some of Trump’s conspiracy theories about the Russia investigation and has called for prosecution of Trump’s political enemies. [68] [63] Several former members of the intelligence community expressed concerns that Ratcliffe's appointment risked politicizing intelligence work. [5] [69] They expressed fear that with Ratcliffe as DNI, Trump would in effect be assuming personal control over the intelligence community, which would then be expected to tell him only what he wants to hear. [70] They stressed the need for intelligence to be "candid, truthful and accurate even if it is unpleasant and does not confirm to the biases of the president". [8] ..mainstream media scrutiny of Ratcliffe (though using the "lamestream" pejorative in the actual message) was unfair, and would result in "months of slander and libel," while White House sources said that Trump had become concerned about Ratcliffe's chances for confirmation, following feedback from some Republican senators. [9] [12] Speaking to reporters later that day, Trump insisted the press had treated Ratcliffe unfairly, but he also stated that he liked the way the press vetted his nominees, saying "You vet for me." [71] In his formal statement withdrawing from consideration, Ratcliffe said, "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." [72] ..President Donald Trump publicly announced Ratcliffe to be his nominee for Director of National Intelligence . [73] The nomination came to the U.S. Senate on March 3, 2020. The U.S. Select Senate Committee on Intelligence held hearings on May 5, 2020, which started with a letter from former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft in favor of the nomination. U.S. Senator John Cornyn introduced Ratcliffe and supported his nomination. [74] The Committee later voted in favor of the nomination on May 19, 2020. [75] ..[76] He was sworn in on May 26. [77] ..
