Republican Rep. John Ratcliffe impressed Donald Trump for his reliable attacks on the FBI, Robert Mueller, and all those other “deep staters” who were conspiring to find the truth rather than protect Trump. With William Barr already in place at the DOJ, Ratcliffe seemed like the perfect man to replace the outgoing Dan Coats as the Director of National Intelligence … a role that positions him to cut off the last connection between the American public and those pesky things called “facts.”
But while Ratcliffe’s dislike for the truth may be his primary qualification for the role, it could also turn out to be a determent when it comes to being approved by the Senate. Even a Republican Senate. Because now that senators are getting a chance to look at Ratcliffe’s intelligence resume, they’re finding someone who is a consistent liar, braggart, and bully—maybe even to the extent that it could derail a Trump nominee.
As an example, Ratcliffe’s website declares that “As a U.S. Attorney, I arrested over 300 illegal immigrants on a single day.” First of all, it’s odd that a U.S. attorney would be conducting arrests at all, but even assuming that Ratcliffe meant that he was somehow involved in processing or dealing with those arrests, it’s still a huge lie.
As The Washington Post reports, Ratcliffe appears to be reporting on a 2008 sweep of Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation poultry plant workers—not exactly the kind of outlaw hunt that is likely to make a good movie. Even on Fox. But even then, court records show that the actual take from that sweep wasn’t 300. Or 200. It was 45. And not only did Ratcliffe’s office charge only 45 people, six of those cases were immediately dismissed. So … John Ratcliffe’s proudest moment was defending America from 39 chicken pluckers.
And wait, it gets better. Or worse. Because two of those people that Ratcliffe charged turned out to be American citizens. That included a 19-year-old woman, whose home was invaded by immigration agents who dragged her out of bed and off to be charged by Trump’s would-be DNI. Except not. Because the people actually involved in the raid, didn’t even remember Ratcliffe being involved.
A retired investigator who helped plan the raid described the incident Ratcliffe is bragging about as “a costly failure” that was “the biggest waste of money and hype.”
This is far from the only instance in which Ratcliffe has been found to have inflated his record as a two-fisted fighter against crime. The representative’s aides have already had to tone down his claims about playing a prominent role in “winning terrorism convictions.” Ratcliffe claimed to have put people in jail for “funneling money to the Hamas terrorist group.” But … not so much. Ratcliffe had only a minor role in researching issues associated with a mistrial. He didn’t prosecute what his campaign was forced to dial back to “terrorist sympathizers” for anything, much less win convictions.
But so far Trump is standing by his terrorist-sympathizer-adjacent chicken-plucker-fighter. Ratcliffe is the right person to take over as DNI because … “The intelligence agencies have run amok. They run amok.”
That’s why Ratcliffe’s self-confessed qualifications make him perfect for the job. “My background isn’t in law enforcement and I don’t have any real specialized training,” said Ratcliffe.
