Ratcliffe, 59, is now the first person to have served as both director of national intelligence and chief of the CIA.

John Ratcliffe was director of national intelligence during Trump's first term and is the first person to have held that position and the top post at the CIA.

A majority of the U.S. Senate on Thursday backed President Donald Trump's nominee John Ratcliffe, a former House of Representatives member who served as Director of National Intelligence during Trump's first term,

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate confirmed former Texas Congressman John Ratcliffe to serve as the next director of the CIA on Thursday.

Ratcliffe faced a brief delay to his nomination from Democrats questioning his independence from President Donald Trump.

The executive order Trump signed Thursday also aims to declassify the remaining federal records relating to the assassinations of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The order is among a flurry of executive actions Trump has quickly taken the first week of his second term.

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order aiming to declassify remaining federal records relating to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr.

The family of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is reacting to an executive order issued on Thursday to declassify documents associated with his assassination.

Trump took the action after the former officials said in 2020 that leaks from Hunter Biden laptop could be "a Russian information operation."

Trump's order also directs the Director of National Intelligence to immediately review the records on the Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. assassinations and present a plan for their full and complete release within 45 days.

The Senate voted to confirm John Ratcliffe as the next CIA director approving the second high-level appointment for the Trump administration.

Ratcliffe, Trump’s former director of national intelligence, sought to reassure senators that he would remain apolitical in his role as CIA director.