Senate confirms Jay Clayton as new intelligence czar
Clayton will take over an organization that has endured near nonstop upheaval in recent weeks, since the departure of former DNI Tulsi Gabbard in mid-June.
The Senate confirmed Jay Clayton as the director of national intelligence Tuesday, ending the tenure of Bill Pulte, a housing official and Trump loyalist, who held the role for more than a month.
The 51-to-47 vote was more partisan than expected after Trump nominated Clayton in June. Many Democrats initially welcomed the pick and signaled they would support him.
But their attitude changed after Clayton’s July confirmation hearing, where multiple Democrats pressed him to acknowledge that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election. Clayton repeatedly said that Biden had been “certified” as the victor but declined to answer the question directly.
The question became a flash point for Democrats concerned about President Donald Trump’s use of the intelligence community to further his baseless claims that the 2020 election was rigged.
Clayton previously served as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and chaired the Securities and Exchange Commission during the first Trump administration.
His background has been less controversial than that of Pulte, who used his time leading the Federal Housing Finance Agency to further allegations of mortgage fraud against Trump’s perceived political enemies. But some Democrats have still argued that Clayton, like Pulte, lacks the national security experience required by law for the position.
The director of national intelligence oversees the 18 agencies that span the U.S. intelligence community. Lawmakers established the role after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to try to prevent future lapses in intelligence sharing and interagency coordination.
Pulte used his five weeks as acting intelligence chief to cut positions in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, fulfilling Trump’s desire to vastly reduce its size. Since June 1, The Washington Post has reported, he has eliminated about 200 jobs within the ODNI.
Pulte said in a posting on X on Tuesday that he had conducted “a 5th and Near Final Round of TERMINATIONS, an approximately 30% Staff Reduction from Weeks Ago.” ODNI has shrunk from around 2,000 people at the start of Trump’s second term to less than 1,300. The workforce’s precise size is classified.
Clayton will take over an organization that has endured near nonstop upheaval in recent weeks, since the departure of former DNI Tulsi Gabbard in mid-June. Morale is low, former senior intelligence officials have said, noting they fear that ODNI’s recent politicized leadership and the firing of veteran analysts have discouraged independent analysis that clashes with White House narratives.
Clayton’s confirmation could unlock a deal to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a warrantless spy program that lapsed for the first time in June after Democrats protested Pulte’s temporary appointment and voted down the legislation. Civil libertarians and privacy advocates have long opposed the tool, arguing it needs firmer guardrails to protect American citizens from government surveillance.
Lawmakers from both parties had sought to accelerate Clayton’s confirmation hearing in June to avoid having Pulte ever step into the acting director role. Trump abruptly canceled the previously scheduled session only hours before it was set to begin, instructing Clayton not to appear.
The president instead called on the Senate to pass a voting restrictions bill and threatened to blockade future legislation without it. The Senate has not yet done so.