Trump nominating prosecutor Jay Clayton to be next director of national intelligence
Washington — President Trump on Thursday announced he's nominating Jay Clayton, the current U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, to be the next director of national intelligence, aiming to end a stalemate on Capitol Hill that is holding up the extension of a key spy tool.
The president announced the move in a post on Truth Social, and urged the Senate to confirm Clayton "as soon as possible."
"Few people anywhere in the Legal Community are respected at the level of Jay. I encourage the United States Senate to confirm Jay as soon as possible," the president wrote. Clayton served as the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission from 2017 to 2020.
Mr. Trump's pick for acting director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, has attracted strong criticism from Democrats and some Republicans on in Congress. The dispute has stalled work on an extension of a warrantless surveillance authority under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which is set to lapse this weekend.
The president asked CIA Director John Ratcliffe for recommendations for director of national intelligence, and Ratcliffe recommended Clayton, and the president agreed with that recommendation, a person familiar with the situation told CBS News. The president wants Pulte to dramatically scale back the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the source said, allowing Clayton to lead a significantly reduced operation once confirmed.
Democrats are refusing to agree to an extension as long as Pulte is set to assume the role. The president said Pulte will take over for Tulsi Gabbard on June 19, and his announcement of Clayton's nomination did not change that timeline.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune applauded the move, telling reporters that Clayton has "a great reputation of being an incredibly competent manager." The South Dakota Republican said he's hopeful that the move will help bring an end to the standoff over FISA and pledged to confirm him as quickly as possible: "I don't know what 'realistic' is, but we're going to probe the limits of it."
But Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, indicated to reporters that he opposes extending FISA with Pulte still set to become acting director of national intelligence, though he noted that he has "great respect" for Clayton.
"If there was a way that Tulsi Gabbard will stay in her position until we could get him confirmed, that could be a way out," Warner said.
The Virginia Democrat questioned the White House's seriousness about the impasse, noting that the House has already left Washington and would be unable to approve an extension at this hour.
"Why he waited until after the House broke, I have no idea," he said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, echoed that Pulte "has got to go."
An effort to approve a short-term FISA extension failed to secure enough support in the House earlier Thursday, with Democrats citing the Pulte pick. Senate Republicans also attempted to approve short-term extensions by unanimous consent, but Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, who has been seeking reforms to Section 702, objected.
The president previously said he was interviewing five people to be the long-term DNI. The role is responsible for overseeing the nation's 18 intelligence agencies.
Clayton was confirmed as the U.S. attorney for Manhattan in August 2025. The office is considered one of the most prestigious and high-profile in the country, and is known for its prosecution of white-collar cases involving public corruption, insider trading and other financial crimes.
The office is currently investigating a number of cases involving suspicious trades in the oil and prediction markets timed with various government actions against Iran. It is also the office that is leading the prosecution against Venezuela's former leader Nicolás Maduro.
Clayton came into the role without experience in criminal law. As an attorney at the firm Sullivan & Cromwell, he specialized in capital-raising and mergers and acquisitions. Apart from his brief tenure as U.S. attorney, it is unclear what experience he has in national security matters, which is a requirement under the law to serve as DNI.
In November, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi said Clayton would investigate the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's connections to prominent Democrats, after Mr. Trump called for an investigation on Truth Social. The president's directive came amid pressure on the administration to release the full Epstein files. It's unclear what, if anything, from the initiative.
More recently, Clayton has also questioned the lengthy vote counting process in California's primaries.
"On the integrity side, we're doing an absolutely terrible job," Clayton told CNBC this week. "And the American people are right to question it."
Mr. Trump said Pulte may "find out some things about the rigged elections," a notable comment after Gabbard attended an FBI search of an election center in Fulton County, Georgia, earlier this year. It's not clear if Clayton, if confirmed, would continue such probes.
