Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

7. Intelligence Community · Minor

Choose a CIA Deputy Director who needs no Senate confirmation

Done

208 7. Intelligence Community

“The President-Elect should choose a Deputy Director who, without needing Senate confirmation, can immediately begin to implement the President’s agenda.”

What has happened

  1. Done

    Michael Ellis was sworn in as Deputy Director of the CIA on 2025-02-10, about three weeks after the Director took office, and without Senate confirmation: no nomination for the post appears among the 119th Congress's nominations, whose only CIA entries are the Director, the Inspector General and the General Counsel. The CIA's July 2025 Executive Director announcement quotes Gard-Weiss working "alongside Director Ratcliffe and Deputy Director Michael Ellis", confirming he was still in post.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

  • This ask is an appointment, so we checked first our roster of the people the Mandate credits — no entry for Michael Ellis or for the CIA Deputy Director post.
  • The “without needing Senate confirmation” half is evidenced negatively and reliably: a search of Senate nominations from congress.gov for every 119th-Congress nomination whose organization is the Central Intelligence Agency returns three (Director, Inspector General, General Counsel) and no Deputy Director. Ellis was sworn in on 2025-02-10 with no Senate action of any kind.
  • The Quote’s further clause — that the Deputy Director “can immediately begin to implement the President’s agenda” — is a purpose rather than a separate object; Ellis’s message to the workforce, quoted in the CIA release, states the aim in those terms.
Action
appoint
Object
CIA Deputy Director
ID
539