President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he has chosen John Ratcliffe to be director of the CIA.

Ratcliffe was high on the list of potential candidates for attorney general, sources told CNN. He currently serves as co-chair of the Center for American Security at the America First Policy Institute, a think tank linked to Trump.

Ratcliffe, a former representative from Texas, served as director of national intelligence from 2020 to 2021 during Trump’s first term — and his appointment served as a key argument for critics who believed Trump was using the intelligence community to meet his needs policies.

During his tenure as intelligence chief, Ratcliffe publicly published unverified information on Russian influence in the 2016 presidential election despite the objection of members of the intelligence community. Critics claimed at the time that Ratcliffe was using the intelligence to help Trump politically in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election.

Trump touted Ratcliffe’s loyalty Tuesday, saying in his announcement: “From exposing fake Russian collusion as a Clinton campaign operation to exposing the FBI’s abuse of civil liberties in court of FISA, John Ratcliffe has always been a warrior for truth and honesty with the American Public.

A CIA official told CNN on Tuesday that the agency was “committed to ensuring a smooth transition.”

Trump initially chose Ratcliffe as director of national intelligence in 2019, but the Texas conservative withdrew after questions were raised on the exaggerations of his national security resume and partisan record. Trump reappointed him in 2020 after Ratcliffe became one of the president’s main defenders during the House’s first impeachment proceedings. The senate voted later 49-44 along party lines to confirm this.

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

Ratcliffe represented Texas’ 4th Congressional District from 2015 to 2020 and held positions on the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees.

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

CNN’s Jeremy Herb and Alex Marquardt contributed to this report.

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