The Senate intelligence committee opened a confirmation hearing on Wednesday for President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be CIA director, John Ratcliffe, a former Republican lawmaker who was accused of using intelligence for political ends as the nation’s top spy during the incoming U.

Ratcliffe, director of national intelligence for the final months of Trump’s first term, goes before the Senate Intelligence Committee. The former Texas congressman is in line to lead the nation's premier spy agency, responsible for foreign covert operations and collecting data on U.S. adversaries.