Newsman: President Trump picks the current U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton for Director of National Intelligence. President Trump on Thursday named Jay Clayton, a federal prosecutor and former head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to serve position.
“Few people anywhere in the Legal Community are respected at the level of Jay,” the president wrote in a post on Truth Social announcing the nomination. “I encourage the United States Senate to confirm Jay as soon as possible. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Trump said that he is nominating the current U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton to head the intelligence agency.
Trump’s announcement comes after both the House and Senate earlier Thursday failed to pass extensions of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which is set to expire at the end of the day Friday. Clayton’s nomination will not be enough to keep the FISA 702 program from expiring Friday. On Thursday, the House failed in its effort to pass a three-week extension of the program and left Washington for a scheduled recess. They are set to return to Washington the week of June 22.
President Trump’s announcement to nominate the U.S. attorney comes as pushback grows against his choice of Bill Pulte to serve as acting Director of National Intelligence. Democratic revolt over Trump’s DNI pick Pulte puts FISA re-authorization in jeopardy. Pulte drew bipartisan concern on Capitol Hill over his lack of previous experience in national security and intelligence.
Journalist asked Trump on Thursday about Pulte continuing to serve as acting director given his lack of intelligence experience.
“He’s only there for a little while. He’s running it for a short while we get a very talented person, Jay Clayton, in,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
Clayton spent the bulk of his career as a corporate attorney, and prior to his appointment as U.S. attorney last year, lacked meaningful experience in criminal matters.
He has spent the last year overseeing one of the country’s highest profile federal prosecutor’s offices — focusing on drugs, gangs, immigration and fraud cases — and was also tapped to lead an investigation that Trump directly called for into high-profile Democrats such Bill Clinton, Larry Summers and Reid Hoffman’s alleged associations with Epstein. Nothing appears to have resulted from that investigation, and earlier this year acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department did not have any active cases into Epstein associates.
Clayton also oversaw the unsealing of grand jury materials related to Epstein, prompting complaints from victims about the disclosure of their sensitive personal information. The Justice Department’s push to unseal those materials resulted in little new information about the investigations into Epstein and was criticized by judges as a largely performative effort while the DOJ refused to release their own materials.
Clayton’s office has brought the first two prosecutions of insider trading on prediction markets, including cases against a Special Forces soldier and Google employee, putting his office at the center of the debate about how to govern the sites that critics say are rife with insider trading.
“There’s a great phrase, ‘opportunity for fraud,'” Clayton said, criticizing the state’s mail-in voting laws.
Clayton spent most of his career at the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, where he represented hedge funds, wealthy investors, large banks and massive corporations such as Deutsche Bank, UBS and Alibaba Group. Clayton represented Goldman Sachs during the 2008 financial crisis and Barclays when it purchased Lehman Brothers’ assets out of bankruptcy.
During Trump’s first administration, Clayton led the SEC, cracking down on cryptocurrencies and winning $14 billion in monetary remedies, including returning $3.5 billion to investors.
Clayton was never confirmed by the Senate as U.S. attorney, though his nomination was approved by the federal judges in the district and was seen by many as a steady hand to lead the high-profile office.
