President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he is nominating Jay Clayton, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, to be his next director of national intelligence. In a post on Truth Social, Trump encouraged the United States Senate to confirm Clayton as soon as possible.

Background on Jay Clayton

Clayton served as head of the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump’s first term. His selection comes amid a firestorm over Trump’s earlier decision to make top housing official Bill Pulte the acting national intelligence chief following the planned departure of Tulsi Gabbard.

The elevation of Pulte, who has no demonstrated national security background, prompted pushback from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers and has endangered the renewal of critical government surveillance powers. Since Pulte’s selection, Republican lawmakers had urged Trump to quickly name a more qualified permanent nominee.

Clayton is well known within Republican circles and has served as the top US attorney in the Southern District of New York since last year. If confirmed, Clayton would become Trump’s second permanent chief of national intelligence after Gabbard, who announced her resignation last month, citing her husband’s diagnosis of a rare form of bone cancer.

Original reporting: KTVZ (Central Oregon) — read the source article.