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.