Trump Nominates Jay Clayton for Intel  06/12 06:27

   

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump said Thursday he is nominating Jay 
Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and a former 
Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, as director of national 
intelligence.

   Trump announced the nomination on social media amid pressure from Congress 
to name a permanent replacement for Tulsi Gabbard, who announced her 
resignation last month. Trump faced intense pushback over his decision to name 
Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as acting director. The 
job oversees the coordination of 18 intelligence agencies.

   The resulting uproar led to a standoff in Congress after Democrats said they 
would refuse to renew foreign intelligence powers unless Trump pulled Pulte's 
nomination and named a permanent nominee.

   "Few people anywhere in the Legal Community are respected at the level of 
Jay," Trump wrote. "I encourage the United States Senate to confirm Jay as soon 
as possible."

   Speaking later Thursday in the Oval Office, Trump said he still plans to 
keep Pulte in the role "for a little while" after earlier saying he wants Pulte 
to downsize the office. He called Clayton an "incredible talent" and said, 
"Nobody has better credentials."

   As the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, Clayton oversees the most prestigious of 
the Justice Department's prosecution offices, with a vast portfolio ranging 
from terrorism and espionage cases to security fraud and public corruption.

   He took over from interim U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon, who resigned in 
February after refusing to carry out orders from the Justice Department to drop 
corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams. The case was eventually dropped 
after prosecutors from Washington submitted a request to a judge.

   Republicans hope to move quickly on nomination

   The Senate Intelligence Committee plans to hold a confirmation hearing for 
Clayton on Wednesday, according to a person who requested anonymity to discuss 
it ahead of an official notice.

   Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters that the Senate 
hopes to receive Clayton's nomination paperwork from the White House as soon as 
Thursday. "We will move quickly," he said.

   Democrats are holding up the renewal of a key surveillance law, the Foreign 
Intelligence Surveillance Act, in protest of Trump's decision to temporarily 
tap Pulte. They say they won't support an extension of the law, which expires 
at midnight Friday, until Trump withdraws Pulte's appointment.

   Trump previously said Pulte would take over on June 19. It is unclear 
whether the Senate could move quickly enough to confirm Clayton before that 
date.

   "I don't know what realistic is, but we're gonna probe the limits of it," 
Thune said.

   Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence 
Committee, said that he has "known and respected" Clayton for decades and that 
if Trump had named him as the DNI nominee last week, "lots of pain might have 
been avoided."

   "His intelligence, temperament and deep commitment to public service will 
make him a terrific DNI," Himes said.

   Asked about Clayton's nomination, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer 
said, "Pulte has to go."

   "He cannot be in the DNI role," Schumer said. "It's too important."

   Trump's pick has led SDNY during a tumultuous period

   Clayton navigated his way through a 14-month tenure in the Southern District 
of New York without clashing with the federal judges in the busiest court in 
the nation, unlike his counterparts in upstate New York and New Jersey. After 
his interim term expired after 120 days, the judges of the Southern District 
appointed him as U.S. attorney.

   Clayton was sworn in April 2025 on the same day three prosecutors resigned, 
saying they felt pressured to admit wrongdoing or regret about prosecuting the 
case against Adams.

   Then, weeks later, the office had to withstand controversy over the Trump 
administration's firing of one of its most respected and successful 
prosecutors, Maurene Comey. She claims she was fired because of Trump's dislike 
of her father, former FBI Director James Comey.

   Under Clayton, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office facilitated the 
unsealing of thousands of pages of court records from the prosecutions of 
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell -- documents that were made public as 
part of the Justice Department's release of records related to the late sex 
offender and his longtime confidant.

   Clayton filed documents with the court explaining the process the government 
followed in releasing the materials.

   Clayton has also overseen the prosecution of former Venezuelan President 
Nicols Maduro and Maduro's wife, Cilia Flores, on drug trafficking charges.

   Clayton has overseen cases involving national security threats

   Several recent terrorism cases brought by Clayton's office touch on the 
global threats and influences that he'll be navigating if confirmed as director 
of national intelligence.

   They include the May arrest of Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, an Iraqi 
and Iranian citizen accused of plotting 20 attacks in Europe and Canada and 
planning to attack a Manhattan synagogue and Jewish centers in Los Angeles and 
Scottsdale, Arizona, in retaliation for the U.S. war on Iran.

   "There are foreign nations and terrorist organizations that see our success 
as a threat. A threat that they want eliminated," Clayton said at a recent 
press briefing. "That is a stark truth."

   "And don't take my word for it," he added. "Take their words and their 
actions. When your enemies tell you something, and when they act, you should 
know that they mean it."

   The first Trump administration tried in June 2020 to install Clayton, then 
the chairman of the SEC, as U.S. attorney in Manhattan, but backed down and 
instead allowed Deputy U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss to serve in the post. The 
reversal came after then-U. S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman agreed to step down, 
following assurances that probes into Trump allies would not be disrupted and 
that Strauss could lead the office.

   At the time, the office was looking into dealings by Rudy Giuliani, who was 
serving as Trump's personal attorney, and was also investigating the actions of 
a state-owned Turkish bank.