The Senate voted on July 28 to confirm Jay Clayton, who was nominated by President Donald Trump to be the next director of national intelligence (DNI).
Clayton’s confirmation by the Senate came after the Senate Intelligence Committee voted 9–8 along party lines on July 21 to advance his nomination. The Senate also voted 51–43 along party lines on July 27 to advance Clayton’s nomination ahead of Tuesday’s final vote.
Clayton was ultimately confirmed with 51 senators’ support to 47 voting against.
Following his confirmation, Clayton will replace acting DNI Bill Pulte, who was criticized by top Democratic senators, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). Schumer previously described Pulte as “unqualified” with “no experience in intelligence.”
Pulte, the former director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, was appointed on June 2 as acting DNI until the Senate could confirm a new director. Trump appointed him after former DNI Tulsi Gabbard announced in May that she was resigning from her position at the end of June. Gabbard said she was stepping down from the role to support her husband, Abraham Williams, after he was diagnosed with cancer.
Trump took to his Truth Social account to congratulate Clayton on his confirmation.
After appointing Pulte as acting DNI, Trump announced Clayton’s nomination for intelligence chief on June 11. In a Truth Social post announcing his nomination, the president said that few people in the legal community were as respected as Clayton.
Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, served as the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission from May 2017 to December 2020 under Trump’s first administration. Prior to his government service, Clayton was a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell, one of the largest law firms in the world.
Clayton was originally scheduled to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on June 17. Trump, however, canceled the meeting after accusing Democrats of breaking an agreement to approve an extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in exchange for Pulte’s removal as intelligence chief.
During his rescheduled confirmation hearing on July 15, Clayton said he would take steps to increase trust in the intelligence community and to improve communication and coordination at the different agencies.
“The mission of the Director of National Intelligence is clear: to ensure that the policymakers and institutions that the intelligence community serves, especially the president, our military leaders, and Congress, receive the best possible intelligence in a timely, objective, and independent manner,” he said.
Some Democrats had initially signaled support for Clayton’s nomination in June. However, Democratic members of the Senate Intelligence Committee appeared to sour on Trump’s nominee after his hearing on July 15.
After the Senate Intelligence Committee advanced Clayton’s nomination last week, Sen. Ron Wyden, a senior Democrat on the committee, said he voted against Clayton for multiple reasons. Wyden accused Clayton of spreading election conspiracies and providing false testimony regarding the process his office followed in subpoenaing New York Times journalists.
The journalists were subpoenaed after reporting on security concerns pertaining to the new Air Force One aircraft. The Justice Department ultimately withdrew the subpoenas on July 23.
“From start to finish, Mr. Clayton has proven himself incapable of telling the truth or demonstrating an iota of independence from Donald Trump. For those reasons, I voted ‘no’ on his nomination,” Wyden said in a statement released on July 21.
Pressed by Democratic senators regarding his views on the 2020 election and the integrity of elections in the United States, Clayton told the committee on July 15 that he was not an “election denier.” He said he believed that the United States needed to take steps to strengthen election integrity.
Clayton also told the committee that his office followed the Justice Department’s procedures in issuing subpoenas to the New York Times journalists. In response to concerns that his office had targeted the journalists, Clayton said he was committed to defending the freedoms guaranteed under the First Amendment.
Prior to Clayton’s confirmation, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, described him as a “highly qualified nominee with a deep experience combatting a wide range of national security threats.” Cotton said he looked forward to working with Clayton to keep Americans safe and reform the DNI office once he was confirmed by the full Senate.
