President-elect Donald Trump has selected Kansas Congressman Mike Pompeo to serve as the leader of the Central Intelligence Agency, according to a release on the Trump transition website.
Pompeo is a veteran congressman and former Army officer who has served on the House Intelligence Committee and is known as a prominent member of the House Select Committee on the Events Surrounding the 2012 Terrorist Attack in Benghazi, Libya, which has been tasked with investigating the attack on the American diplomatic compound there.
Army experience
Pompeo graduated first in his class from the West Point Military Academy and served as an active duty cavalry officer in the Army, according to the Trump transition team release. Pompeo’s congressional website says he “served as an officer patrolling the Iron Curtain before the fall of the Berlin Wall.”
“He has served our country with honor and spent his life fighting for the security of our citizens,” Trump said in a statement. “He will be a brilliant and unrelenting leader for our intelligence community to ensure the safety of Americans and our allies.”
Harvard Law
After leaving the Army, Pompeo earned a law degree from Harvard where he worked as the editor of the Harvard Law Review. After working briefly as a private lawyer, Pompeo founded Thayer Aerospace, which built components for military aircraft.
He later became the president of an oil field supplies company called Sentry International before being elected to Congress in 2010.
