Donald Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence has extensive experience prosecuting terrorists—or so he says. One of Rep. John Ratcliffe’s key claims to anti-terrorism experience comes from how, as a press release from his office put it, “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.” There’s just one problem: There’s no record of Ratcliffe’s work on that case.
ABC News reports finding “no public court records that connect Ratcliffe to either of the two trials for the case.” What’s more, “Former officials directly involved in the decade-long Holy Land Foundation investigation could not recall Ratcliffe having any role, and four former defense attorneys who served on the cases told ABC News on Monday they had no recollection of Ratcliffe being involved with any of the proceedings that resulted in the convictions of their clients.”
Ratcliffe’s office responded by claiming that he had a nonpublic role investigating why the first case against the Holy Land Foundation ended in a mistrial. Which is … not exactly the impression he gave in claiming that “he convicted individuals.” Or how his campaign website described his “special appointment as the prosecutor in U.S. v. Holy Land Foundation.” THE prosecutor? Ahem.
Ratcliffe was a U.S. attorney and, prior to that, chief of anti-terrorism and national security in the Eastern District of Texas. But his need to radically inflate his role in a specific high-profile case suggests that his credentials for DNI may not be the strongest. Then again, “guy who plays fast and loose with the truth to make himself seem important” is a very important credential for a role in the Trump administration.
