Senate votes to confirm Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton will become the next director of national intelligence after the Senate voted to confirm his nomination following a monthslong stalemate.

Clayton’s nomination was confirmed by a 51-47 party-line vote.

Clayton’s confirmation comes as senators work to renew the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, a critical national security tool that went dark after Democrats revolted against its extension over concerns over the next DNI. 

Following the resignation of previous DNI Tulsi Gabbard in May, President Donald Trump tapped Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte as acting DNI despite his lack of intelligence experience.

The move caused all Democrats, with the exception of Sen. John Fetterman, to vote against moving forward with consideration of the FISA authorization despite the fact that some, including Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner, had previously been supportive of FISA reauthorization.

Trump’s appointment of Pulte as acting DNI also frustrated some Republicans, including Majority Leader John Thune, who argued the reauthorization had a bipartisan, bicameral path forward but was derailed due to the timing of Trump’s announcement. 

“There have been timing issues around several things that they’ve done in the last few weeks,” Thune said of the administration in early June. “I’m sure that’s the, you know, that’s the conclusion Democrats have drawn, but I still think that, not withstanding their feelings on that, that it’s irresponsible not to keep this agency going,” Thune said. 

Then after nominating Clayton, Trump abruptly canceled his confirmation hearing the morning Clayton was set to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee, arguing that it wouldn’t be rescheduled until James McDonald, Trump’s pick to succeed Clayton at the SDNY, was confirmed. 

While some Democrats voiced support for Clayton in the DNI role, when he finally did appear for his confirmation hearing, he refused to say that former President Joe Biden won the 2020 election, instead saying he had been certified as the winner, and raised concerns over his decision to issue subpoenas to several New York Times journalists over their reporting on security concerns involving Trump’s new Qatari-gifted Air Force One.

“I was very disappointed with a number of Mr. Clayton’s answers — it’s not in many ways reflective of the person that I’ve worked with over the years,” Warner said as he left the hearing.  

“Some of my initial questions, Clayton said what I wanted to hear in terms of the importance of classification of information, speaking truth to power,” Warner began, but then said, “But I was very disappointed.” 

Last week, Clayton advanced out of committee on a party-line vote as well as during a procedural vote Monday to send his nomination to the Senate floor. 

Despite the partisan breakdown on Clayton’s nomination, Republicans are still hopeful that his installation could unlock the necessary Democratic support to move forward with a reauthorization of FISA Section 702, which lapsed in mid-June. The Senate may take action on the foreign surveillance program before it goes on its August recess at the end of next week, but with the House already recessed, the program is all but certain to remain dark until at least September.