Senate confirms Jay Clayton as DNI after party-line vote

The Senate confirmed Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence on July 28 in a 51-47 party-line vote, giving President Donald Trump's nominee permanent control of the office overseeing the nation's intelligence coordination after months of upheaval at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Clayton, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and a former chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, takes over after Tulsi Gabbard announced in May that she was resigning as DNI. Trump then tapped housing official Bill Pulte to lead the office on an interim basis, a move that drew bipartisan criticism because Pulte had no intelligence operations background. The office Clayton inherits has been undergoing cuts under Pulte. The acting DNI said on July 28 that ODNI had been reduced by 30% through multiple rounds of layoffs. Pulte's appointment also fueled broader concern in Washington, and the House of Representatives on June 11 blocked renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a key surveillance authority. Clayton's confirmation hearing underscored questions about his own limited national security credentials compared with past DNI officials, even as supporters pointed to his leadership of the Justice Department's Southern District of New York office, which handles national security cases and employs more than 220 prosecutors. He also drew scrutiny for refusing to say who won the 2020 election, telling Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Georgia, "I'm not going to engage in the theatre." Sen. Mark Warner, the Intelligence Committee's vice chair, said after the vote that he had been initially encouraged by Clayton's nomination but left the confirmation process with "serious reservations" about whether Clayton would stand up to political pressure. Trump praised Clayton after the Senate vote, writing on social media that "Jay is outstanding in every way, and will do a spectacular job as Director!"