According to reports, the US Senate voted 51 to 47 on the 28th to confirm Jay Clayton as the new Director of National Intelligence. The vote was strictly along party lines, putting an end to the acting tenure of the previous director.
Clayton, 60, is a former Wall Street lawyer at the prestigious firm Sullivan & Cromwell, where he specialized in mergers and financing. He served as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump’s first term and has been running the Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney’s Office since the start of Trump’s second term.
Jay Clayton (photo source: Getty Images)
He’s been praised for handling several cases related to prediction markets, but like his predecessor, he lacks direct experience in intelligence work.
The vote outcome was intensely partisan—every Democrat voted against him. This marks a sharp shift from June when Trump first nominated Clayton, and many Democrats actually welcomed the pick. But everything changed after his confirmation hearing in July, where multiple Democrats pressed him to acknowledge that Biden won the 2020 election. Clayton repeatedly said Biden had been “certified” as the winner but refused to directly answer the question. Democrats fear Trump will use Clayton to turn the intelligence community into a political weapon, pushing baseless claims about election fraud and foreign interference in 2020.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called Clayton’s hearing performance “absolutely terrible,” saying it “significantly lowered his chances of getting Democratic votes.” Intelligence Committee Ranking Democrat Mark Warner said after the vote: “I have serious doubts about whether he can withstand political pressure when it matters most.”
Clayton enters the role at a delicate time in Trump’s relationship with the intelligence community. Just two weeks ago, the government declassified years-old intelligence materials to support Trump’s false claims about election fraud and foreign meddling in 2020. Even though the documents don’t seem to back him up, Trump has called for an investigation into the intelligence community for “covering up the truth,” which Clayton might now lead.
With the midterm elections just over three months away—which will decide control of Congress—Trump is ramping up “election security” as a key issue, despite studies showing voter fraud is extremely rare. Democrats accuse him of using this to question any Democratic electoral victory.