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WASHINGTON (AP) — 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.
Trump announced the nomination on social media amid pressure from Congress to name a permanent replacement for Tulsi Gabbard, who resigned 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 situation has 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.”
Later on Thursday, Trump said he still plans to put Pulte in the role “for a little while.” Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump 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
Clayton appeared on Monday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” where he raised questions about the integrity of California’s elections. Trump has claimed without evidence that the state’s slow count in its recent primaries meant the vote was rigged.
“The American people are right to question it,” Clayton said, adding that the delay in results increased the opportunity for fraud.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., says the Senate could move “fairly quickly” to confirm Clayton as Director of National Intelligence if the White House submits his paperwork soon.
He praised Clayton after Trump said on social media that he would nominate him for the job, saying he has a “great reputation.”
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 on 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 he has “known and respected” Clayton for decades and that had he been tapped as DNI a week ago, “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 that “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.
Clayton was sworn in as U.S. attorney in April 2025 on the same day three prosecutors resigned, saying they felt pressured to admit wrongdoing or regret about prosecuting the now-dismissed corruption case against then-New York Mayor Eric 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 then as Trump’s personal attorney, and was also investigating the actions of a state-owned Turkish bank.
Trump doubled down on naming Pulte as the acting director, even though he emphasized it would be a short-term job. The president said he wanted Pulte to downsize the office, which has already been significantly scaled back in his second term.
Gabbard resigned on May 22, citing her husband’s cancer diagnosis.
Trump said last week that he was interviewing five candidates for his pick to lead the agency permanently and that all have national security backgrounds.
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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.
Collin Binkley, Larry Neumeister And Michael R. Sisak, The Associated Press
