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Trump withdraws Ratcliffe nomination for DNI

Just a few days after President Trump nominated Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, to replace Dan Coats as director of national intelligence (DNI), he withdrew the nomination, citing likely brutal scrutiny.

“Rather than going through months of slander and libel, I explained to John how miserable it would be for him and his family to deal with these people [mainstream media],” Trump tweeted.

But Ratcliffe selection had prompted bipartisan criticism from those concerned that he didn’t have the experience to lead the intelligence community in an important role established after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to facilitate communication and coordination among the U.S.’s various intelligence agencies.

When Trump nominated Ratcliffe shortly after the Congressman’s grilling of Mueller, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., called Ratcliffe “a blind loyalist to the president” and expressed concern over how intelligence would be affected.

And it appears that the Senate Intelligence Committee received an email from The Government Accountability Project, which, according to a report in the Daily Beast, revealed Ratcliffe’s role in boosting a company that had sought to punish a government whistleblower and his/her cybersecurity actions. The organization allegedly played a significant role in getting a government cybersecurity office shuttered.

The Government Accountability Project represents the anonymous government employee.

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