The Senate Intelligence Committee scheduled a new confirmation hearing Tuesday for Jay Clayton’s nomination to be director of national intelligence after President Donald Trump upended the initial date.
The panel plans to meet July 15, nearly a month after the earlier hearing was postponed.
Trump last month nominated Clayton, who has been serving as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, and the Senate committee scheduled a confirmation hearing for June 17. Trump, however, demanded that the Intelligence Committee abandon the hearing just hours before it was set to take place over disagreements with Democrats.
Trump said at the time that Clayton’s nomination should not move forward until James McDonald, a partner at top law firm Sullivan & Cromwell and a former federal prosecutor, was confirmed to replace Clayton in New York. The White House does not appear to have sent McDonald’s nomination to the Senate yet.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Clayton’s new hearing date and whether Trump had any objections to it.
When Trump delayed Clayton’s confirmation hearing last month, he accused Republicans of moving “so fast with the hearings of the Great Jay Clayton.” He forced Senate Republicans to cancel the hearing then because of his frustration over the expiration of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, and because the voter ID bill Trump backs, the SAVE America Act, does not have enough votes to pass Congress.
Several key Democrats have spoken positively about Clayton, including Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the ranking member of the Intelligence Committee.
Rep. Jim Himes, of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said on X last month, “His intelligence, temperament and deep commitment to public service will make him a terrific DNI.”
A federal judge appointed Clayton last year to be U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York after his nomination stalled in the Senate. He was chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump’s first term after the Senate confirmed him in a 61-37 vote. He was also previously a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell.
In early June, Trump named Bill Pulte to be acting national intelligence director, succeeding Tulsi Gabbard, who said she was stepping down because of her husband’s cancer diagnosis. Democrats and some Republicans expressed concerns about the choice of Pulte over his lack of a national security background and because he has helped the administration compile information to launch investigations into Trump’s perceived political enemies as head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
Pulte took over as acting national intelligence director on June 19.
Democrats have said their support for reauthorizing the expired FISA provision depends in part on Clayton’s taking over as national intelligence director so Pulte is no longer in the position.
