President Donald Trump said Thursday that he plans to nominate 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.
Background
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.
Clayton has overseen the prosecution of several high-profile cases, including the prosecution of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, on drug trafficking charges. He has also navigated his way through a tumultuous period in the Southern District of New York, including the unsealing of thousands of pages of court records from the prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Reaction
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. 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.”
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said, “Pulte has to go. He cannot be in the DNI role. It’s too important.” 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.
Original reporting: Texarkana Gazette — read the source article.
