John Ratcliffe — the American politician and attorney who has served as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency since January 2025 — was born on this day — October 20, 1965 — in Mount Prospect, Illinois.

He is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Government and International Studies, and the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, where he earned a Juris Doctor.

Prior to his appointment as CIA Director, Ratcliffe served as the Director of National Intelligence from 2020 to 2021. He represented Texas’s 4th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2015 to 2020. Earlier in his career, he served as the Mayor of Heath, Texas, and as a federal prosecutor, holding the role of acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas.

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