President Donald Trump said Thursday that he will nominate Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence, hours after objections by House Democrats to the incoming acting director, Bill Pulte, ensured that a key national security tool will expire this week.
Clayton is the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and is the former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. He will have to be confirmed as the director of national intelligence by the Senate.
The Senate is moving quickly on the nomination. The Select Committee on Intelligence on Thursday announced a confirmation hearing for Clayton on June 17, a rapid pace that could set him on a speedy path to confirmation.
Trump’s surprise announcement comes after more than a week of controversy over his appointment of Pulte, who is a top federal housing official, to replace Director Tulsi Gabbard in an acting role when she leaves that post.
Trump said Wednesday that Pulte, who since last year has served as an attack dog against several Trump foes, will assume the acting role on June 19 as Trump looks for a permanent director. Pulte has no intelligence background.
Trump has said that Pulte would retain his responsibilities leading the Federal Housing Finance Agency and serving as chairman of the mortgage groups Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The director of national intelligence oversees the broad U.S. intelligence community, which includes the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency.
Hours before Trump’s announcement, the House of Representatives rejected a proposal to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act beyond Friday as Democrats refused to back the measure due to Trump’s choice of Pulte.
House members left Washington after the 198-218 vote against the extension and are not due back at the Capitol until June 23.
Trump called Clayton “very Highly respected” in a Truth Social post announcing the nomination.
“Few people anywhere in the Legal Community are respected at the level of Jay,” Trump wrote.
“I encourage the United States Senate to confirm Jay as soon as possible,” he wrote.
As head of the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office, Clayton has overseen some of the highest-profile federal criminal prosecutions in the United States, among them the drug trafficking case against former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, who was captured by American forces in Caracas in early January.
Last week, Clayton, during an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” said “the American people are right to question” the results of primary elections in California, which had been the subject of right-wing conspiracy theories about ballot fraud.
“I’m not saying there is fraud,” Clayton said.
Trump has long claimed that he and other Republicans are the victims of voter fraud.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters that Clayton has a “great reputation” and that the Republican Senate leadership will try to get him confirmed “as quickly as possible.”
Thune said he had not been informed by the White House that Clayton would be nominated before Trump made his announcement.
Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat who is the vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said he has “great respect for Jay Clayton.”
But Warner questioned why Trump had delayed naming Clayton, given that the FISA extension was known to be in peril because of Pulte’s appointment.
“Why he waited until after the House broke, I have no idea,” Warner said.
“If there was any level of serious concern about this in the White House, the House has already left town,” Warner said.
“Bill Pulte is a national security threat,” he said.
In a later statement, Warner said that despite Clayton’s nomination, Democrats would not relent in blocking FISA without a “clear guarantee” that Pulte will not serve as acting DNI before Clayton is confirmed.
“Either Director Gabbard must remain in place or the administration must designate the Senate-confirmed Principal Deputy DNI as the acting head through any transition,” he said.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., echoed Warner, calling the selection of Clayton “seemingly a positive step.”
“But the president’s timing couldn’t be worse,” Blumenthal said. “Literally waiting until now, when everyone has left town, and there’s no possibility of a path forward on FISA until next week.”
“Why Clayton couldn’t have been nominated in the first place is a complete unknown,” Blumenthal said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., did not directly comment on Clayton’s appointment, but told reporters that it was crucial that Pulte not serve as director of national intelligence.
“The DNI role is too important,” Schumer said. “He cannot be there, no ands, ifs, or buts.”
“Doesn’t matter what else they do. Pulte’s got to be gone. He’s still in that role,” Schumer said.
Trump on Wednesday said he had asked Pulte “to execute the immediate and needed downsizing of the office, reverting staff to their home agencies.”
When Trump began his second term in January 2025, the national intelligence director’s office had about 1,800 employees, according to Federal News Network.
Gabbard later cut nearly 30% of the office’s staff, the director’s office said in an August 2025 fact sheet, which detailed her plans to make further cuts.
— MS NOW, and CNBC’s Garrett Downs, Emily Wilkins and Karen Sloan contributed to this article.
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