Trump nominates US Attorney Jay Clayton to be director of national
intelligence
[June 12, 2026]
By COLLIN BINKLEY, LARRY NEUMEISTER and MICHAEL R. SISAK
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.
[to top of second column]
|
Jay Clayton, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York,
listens during a news conference in New York, March 9, 2026. (AP
Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
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 Nicolás 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.
___
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.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
