Senate Confirms Jay Clayton as Director of National Intelligence

President Trump's pick scraped by in a party-line vote.

The Senate confirmed Walter “Jay” Clayton, Manhattan’s U.S. attorney, as director of national intelligence Tuesday in a 51-47 party-line vote.

All voting Republicans supported the nomination, while every Democrat and both independents opposed it. GOP Senators Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Darline Graham of South Carolina did not vote.

Mr. Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, succeeds Tulsi Gabbard as the Senate-confirmed intelligence chief and replaces acting DNI Bill Pulte. Ms. Gabbard announced her resignation May 22, effective June 30.

Ms. Gabbard said she had to “step away from public service” to support her husband, Abraham Williams, who is fighting “an extremely rare form of bone cancer.”

President Trump named real-estate developer Mr. Pulte, who also heads the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as acting DNI. To Senate Democrats’ chagrin, Mr. Pulte reduced the size of his office during his roughly four weeks on the job.

Mr. Pulte wrote on X early Tuesday that “we are, this morning, Executing a 5th and Near Final Round of TERMINATIONS, an approximately 30% Staff Reduction from Weeks Ago. The Intelligence Community must protect the American people, NOT the political whims of the bloated and corrupt elite class.” He did not provide exact figures or a baseline for his calculation. Officials have said earlier reductions under Ms. Gabbard approached 50 percent, including employees returned to their home agencies.

Mr. Clayton, who was chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from May 2017 to December 2020, received no support from Democrats, partly because he would not state during his confirmation hearing that President Joe Biden decisively won the 2020 election, saying instead the candidate had been “certified” the winner.

During his tenure as a U.S. attorney, Mr. Clayton’s office issued subpoenas to New York Times journalists who reported on security concerns involving the Qatar-donated aircraft being used as Air Force One. The Justice Department said last week it would withdraw the subpoenas at issue in the newspaper’s court challenge