Trump DNI pick braces for Senate grilling as temporary stand-in fuels Dem pressure
Former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman Walter “Jay” Clayton will face senators at an expectedly tense confirmation hearing to become the director of national intelligence Wednesday.
The forum comes amid Democrats’ weeks-long uproar over President Donald Trump’s temporary pick for the job – homebuilder scion and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte.
Clayton is currently serving as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, which is considered the most prominent of the dozens of national posts – with alumni ranging from Rudy Giuliani to Preet Bharara.
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Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., a top Trump critic – expressed to reporters Tuesday that concerns over Pulte could actually help push Clayton through following his Intelligence Committee appearance.
“[I] would love to hear some reassurance from the White House that Bill Pulte is not going to take over as DNI, even for a very short period of time, but that I don’t anticipate that coming,” he said.
Kelly said that Pulte looming over the intelligence community might be an “incentive” to move Clayton through “on a faster timeline.”
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“But to do that, we have to have everybody in the committee,” he said.
Democrats have accused Pulte of playing politics with his powers at FHFA and worry that his lack of intel credentials and alleged partisanship endanger the role of DNI.
Trump dismissed such claims, saying “Dumocrats” are inordinately “afraid” of Pulte.
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Clayton, meanwhile, comes before Congress with a resume that may be easier for Democrats to digest in the narrow-GOP-majority upper chamber.
While Clayton also doesn’t come from the intel community, he does have the prosecutorial chops some critics may be assuaged by.
As SDNY’s top federal prosecutor, Clayton has overseen cases involving violent crime, drug trafficking, Wall Street-related enforcement and national security matters, while avoiding public controversy of other Trump picks.
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Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota said that Clayton’s role as SDNY does crossover into intelligence matters.
“Jay Clayton is an eminently qualified individual to become the new director of national intelligence. And so we are looking forward to processing him this week. [Intelligence Committee] Chairman Cotton will be … [holding] his confirmation hearing tomorrow… and hopefully reporting him out later in the week.”
Returning to concerns over Democrat roadblocks for another Trump pick, Thune noted it would take cooperation of the minority party to fast-track the nomination.
The hearing will bear out whether that becomes the case.
Fox News’ Tyler Olson contributed to this report.
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