Washington– US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he will nominate Jay Clayton, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York and former Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to his position. Director of National Intelligence.
Trump announced the nomination on social media amid pressure from Congress to name a permanent replacement for Tulsi Gabbard She announced her resignation last month. Trump faced strong opposition to his decision Name is Bill Bolthead of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as acting administrator. The job oversees coordination between 18 intelligence agencies.
The resulting uproar led to a Confrontation in Congress After Democrats said they would refuse to renew foreign intelligence powers unless Trump withdraws Bolte’s nomination and appoints a permanent nominee.
“Few people anywhere in the legal community are as respected as Jay,” Trump wrote. “I encourage the US Senate to confirm Jay as soon as possible.”
Speaking later Thursday in the Oval Office, Trump said he still plans to keep Bolte in office “for a short time” after earlier saying he wanted Bolte to take over. Reducing the size of the office. He described Clayton as an “amazing talent” and said: “No one has better qualifications.”
As U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, Clayton oversees the Justice Department’s most prestigious prosecutorial offices, with a wide-ranging portfolio ranging from terrorism and espionage cases to security fraud and public corruption.
He assumed his duties as successor to interim US Attorney Danielle Sasson He resigned in February After refusing to implement the Justice Department’s orders to drop corruption charges against the city’s mayor, Eric Adams. the The case was eventually dropped After prosecutors in Washington submitted a request to the judge.
The Senate Intelligence Committee plans to hold a confirmation hearing for Clayton on Wednesday, according to a person who requested anonymity to discuss the matter before formal notice.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters that the Senate hopes to receive Clayton’s nomination papers from the White House on Thursday. “We will act quickly,” he added.
Democrats are blocking the renewal of a key surveillance law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, in protest of Trump’s decision to temporarily tap Bolte. They say they will not support extending the law, which expires at midnight Friday, until Trump withdraws Bolte’s appointment.
Trump previously said that Bolte would take office on June 19. It is unclear whether the Senate will move quickly enough to confirm Clayton before that date.
“I don’t know what realism is, but we will explore its limits,” Thune said.
Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he has “known and respected” Clayton for decades, and that if Trump had named him as his nominee for director of national intelligence last week, “a lot of pain might have been avoided.”
“His intelligence, temperament, and deep commitment to public service will make him an outstanding Director of National Intelligence,” Himes said.
In response to a question about Clayton’s nomination, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said: “Bolte has to go.”
“He cannot be in the role of director of national intelligence,” Schumer said. “It’s very important.”
Clayton worked his way through his 14-month tenure in the Southern District of New York without running afoul of federal judges on the nation’s busiest court, unlike his counterparts in upstate New York and New Jersey. After his interim term expired 120 days later, the Southern District judges appointed him U.S. Attorney.
Clayton was sworn in in April 2025 on the same day Three prosecutors resignedSaying they felt pressured to admit wrongdoing or regret prosecuting the case against Adams.
Then, weeks later, the office had to contend with controversy surrounding the Trump administration’s firing of one of its most respected and successful prosecutors, Maureen Comey. You claim She was fired because of Trump’s hatred for her father Former FBI Director James Comey.
Under Clayton, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office facilitated the release of thousands of pages of court records from prosecutions. Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell – Documents made public as part of the Justice Department’s release of records related to the late sex offender and his longtime confidant.
Clayton submitted documents to the court explaining the process the government followed in releasing the materials.
Clayton also supervised the trial of the former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro Maduro’s wife, Celia Flores, is charged with drug trafficking.
Many of the recent terrorism cases brought by Clayton’s office address the global threats and impacts he would address if he were appointed Director of National Intelligence.
It includes He may be arrested Muhammad Baqir Saad Daoud Al-Saadi, an Iraqi and Iranian national, is accused of planning 20 attacks in Europe and Canada and planning to attack a synagogue in Manhattan and Jewish centers in Los Angeles and Scottsdale, Arizona, in response to the US war on Iran.
Clayton said in a recent press conference: “There are foreign countries and terrorist organizations that see our success as a threat. A threat that they want to eliminate.” “This is the stark truth.”
He added: “And do not take my words seriously.” “Take their words and their actions. When your enemies tell you something, and when they act, you must know that they mean it.”
The first Trump administration tried in June 2020 to install Clayton, then head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, as US attorney in Manhattan, but backed down and instead… allowed Deputy U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss To serve in this position. The reversal came after then-U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey S. Berman agreed to step down, After assurances that investigations into Trump allies would not be disrupted and that Strauss could head the office.
At the time, the office was looking into the transactions rudy giuliani, who was acting as Trump’s personal lawyer, and was also investigating the actions of a state-owned Turkish bank.
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Neumeister and Sisak reported from New York. Associated Press writers Eric Tucker, Mary Clare Jalonick and Seung-Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.