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President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the nation’s intelligence agencies will get a second shot in the Senate on Wednesday, weeks after the president sabotaged the initial confirmation hearing.
U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, who currently serves in the Southern District of New York, was tapped by Trump to be the permanent nominee as the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) after former DNI Tulsi Gabbard stepped down from the role last month.
He’ll get his shot before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday at 9:30 a.m.
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“Jay Clayton is a patriot and highly qualified nominee,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said on X.
“In his service to the people of New York, Mr. Clayton has deep experience combatting a wide range of national security threats,” he continued. “I look forward to his hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee tomorrow.”
But Clayton, who previously served as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) during Trump’s first term, was caught in a political firestorm roiling through the Senate last month that he had no part of.
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And if he survives the process — several Democrats still serving in the Senate voted to confirm him as SEC chair — lawmakers are hopeful that it will again set up a path to turn a key counter-terrorism tool back on.
Democrats were enraged at Trump for tapping Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte to be the acting DNI, arguing that he was unqualified and could weaponize the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies at Trump’s bidding.
“Why is Mr. Pulte being promoted? Beyond the fact that just the kind of outright insult to the intelligence community, that he can suddenly do the mortgage banking job and the intelligence job at the same time, it’s absurd,” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said at the time.
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In return, they refused to support reauthorization of the nation’s top counter-terrorism tool, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), causing the program to gradually go dark.
Clayton’s nomination was seen by Democrats as an olive branch from the administration designed to ensure that Pulte would never get into the DNI role, and that consideration of a FISA reauthorization could restart.
But then Trump blew up the process, demanding that the hearing be halted in a fiery Truth Social post.
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He argued that Democrats “broke the deal” with FISA, and that until Clayton’s replacement in the Southern District, James McDonald, was confirmed, the nomination would not go forward. And to “add a slight bit of intrigue,” Trump demanded that Republicans tie the SAVE America Act to FISA, effectively killing the legislation for Democrats.
“Not complicated, actually, the Republicans fell into a trap,” Trump said at the time.
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