John Ratcliffe

John Ratcliffe served as Director of National Intelligence from May 2020 to January 2021 under President Trump's first term, and was confirmed as CIA Director in January 2025 at the start of Trump's second term. Before his intelligence roles, he served as a Republican congressman from Texas (2015-2020) and as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas. Ratcliffe appears on the DOJ's February 2026 list of approximately 305 "politically exposed persons" whose names appear in the Epstein files released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

The DOJ stated that inclusion does not specify the nature or degree of connection. As CIA Director at the time of the January 2026 document release, Ratcliffe's agency faced direct congressional scrutiny regarding the Epstein files. Representative Nancy Mace sent a formal letter to Ratcliffe demanding that the CIA disclose all records related to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell after the agency responded to earlier records requests by stating it could neither confirm nor deny whether any such records existed, invoking classified information exemptions. Separately, the released files confirmed that Epstein's own attorneys had sought records from the CIA in 2011 to establish whether he had an "open affiliation" with the agency; the CIA neither confirmed nor denied any classified relationship at that time. The combination of Ratcliffe's name on the politically exposed persons list and his position as the sitting CIA director overseeing an agency with documented silence on its own Epstein records has made him a central figure in congressional demands for further disclosure.