Trump Picks Doug Collins, Ex-Congressman and Impeachment Defender, to Lead V.A.

President-elect Donald J. Trump said on Thursday that he intended to nominate former Representative Doug Collins of Georgia to lead the Veterans Affairs Department, elevating another of his most vocal defenders during his first impeachment inquiry.

“We must take care of our brave men and women in uniform, and Doug will be a great advocate for our Active Duty Servicemembers, Veterans, and Military Families to ensure they have the support they need,” Mr. Trump wrote in a statement.

Mr. Collins, 58, who serves in the Air Force Reserve as a chaplain and deployed to Iraq for five months, said in a statement on social media that he would “fight tirelessly to streamline and cut regulations in the VA, root out corruption, and ensure every veteran receives the benefits they’ve earned.”

As a congressman, Mr. Collins became the face of Mr. Trump’s first impeachment defense in the House in 2019. Then the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, Mr. Collins emerged as a fixture on Fox News and led House Republicans’ efforts to undercut the impeachment hearings held by Democrats.

Mr. Trump has tapped three other current or former House Republicans who defended him during the impeachment inquiry to serve in his cabinet: Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, and former Representatives Lee Zeldin of New York and John Ratcliffe of Texas.

Mr. Collins cut a somewhat idiosyncratic figure in the House. In front of the cameras during the impeachment proceedings against Mr. Trump, he was fiercely partisan. But he also worked with Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, now the Democratic leader, to pass bipartisan legislation aimed at rolling back tough sentencing laws that had caused the country’s prison population to balloon.