Trump’s DNI Nominee Moves Closer to Confirmation
President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the nation’s intelligence community moved closer to confirmation Monday as Senate Republicans worked to restore permanent leadership at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
The Senate voted 51-43 to advance Walter “Jay” Clayton’s nomination, setting up a final confirmation vote expected Tuesday. The procedural vote fell largely along party lines.
Clayton was selected to succeed Tulsi Gabbard, who resigned after her husband was diagnosed with cancer. Trump subsequently appointed Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte to serve as acting DNI.
Clayton previously chaired the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump’s first term and later served as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. His nomination advanced through the Senate Intelligence Committee on a narrow party-line vote.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune urged Democrats to support the nominee, pointing to Clayton’s leadership experience and previous bipartisan backing.
“One might think that we’d be seeing some bipartisanship from Democrats on this nominee,” Thune said on Monday.
“But Democrats are playing the same partisan games with this qualified nominee as they have for so many of President Trump’s picks,” he continued.
“It’s a funny thing because Democrats have made no secret of their disdain for the current acting Director of … National intelligence,” he continued.
“In fact, Democrats were so worked up over the president’s temporary choice for this position, they allowed our nation’s most important counterterrorism tool to go dark for the first time ever,” he reminded the chamber.
Thune argued that Clayton’s experience supervising national-security prosecutions and leading major federal institutions makes him capable of overseeing the 18 agencies that comprise the U.S. intelligence community.
Pulte’s appointment as acting director sparked immediate opposition from Democrats, who accused him of politicizing intelligence operations and questioned his lack of traditional intelligence experience.
Since taking the position, Pulte has moved aggressively to reduce the size of the DNI’s office and remove personnel he believes have distracted the agency from its core national-security mission.
“Since becoming Acting Director of National Intelligence, our team has been smartly, and carefully, reducing the size of ODNI, re-focusing ODNI on national security, the law, and the statute,” Pulte said.
“As of this evening, we just finished a 4th round of thoughtful, measured layoffs. Thank you!” he added.
The confirmation fight has become entangled with the expiration of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a critical authority used to collect communications involving non-Americans located abroad.
The program expired June 12 after senators failed to reach an agreement on extending it. Supporters argue that Section 702 has helped identify terrorists, disrupt foreign threats and protect Americans from planned attacks.
Democrats withdrew from a bipartisan reauthorization agreement amid controversy surrounding Trump’s intelligence leadership decisions. Republicans accused them of allowing a vital counterterrorism authority to lapse to make a political point against the administration.
Clayton’s confirmation hearing also became contentious.
Democrats questioned him about the 2020 presidential election, actions reportedly taken by Gabbard involving election records in Fulton County, Georgia, and subpoenas issued to The New York Times while Clayton led the Southern District of New York.
Clayton defended his record and argued that his leadership experience, legal background and work on national-security prosecutions prepared him to direct the intelligence community.
His final confirmation would end a turbulent period of temporary leadership and give Trump a permanent intelligence chief as the United States confronts threats from Iran, China, Russia, terrorist organizations and transnational criminal networks.
Republicans are expected to provide the votes needed to confirm him, despite continued Democratic resistance.