Trump nominates federal prosecutor Jay Clayton to lead national intelligence agency

US President Donald Trump, following controversies over experience in Congress, has nominated Jay Clayton, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the nation’s most senior intelligence post.

The selection, which will fill the vacancy left by incumbent Director Tulsi Gabbard when she departs on June 30, comes after turbulent weeks following Trump’s appointment of Bill Pulte as acting director.

“There are very few people in the legal community who are as highly respected as Jay,” Trump said in a statement on his social media platform, Truth Social, calling on the US Senate to confirm Clayton’s nomination as quickly as possible.

A political independent, Clayton has served since August 2025 as the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York—a position legal experts describe as the most powerful post within the Department of Justice.

Trump had nominated Clayton to this post shortly after winning the 2024 presidential election, describing him as “a tough fighter for the facts.”

From Wall Street lawyer to federal prosecutor

Born in West Virginia, Clayton began his legal career from 1993 to 1995 as a law clerk to Judge Marvin Katz of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

He then worked at the Sullivan & Cromwell law firm from 1995 to 2017, first as an associate and later as a partner. During this period, Clayton represented major financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, building a multi-million dollar fortune during his time as a Wall Street lawyer.

In 2017, at the beginning of his first presidential term, Trump nominated Clayton to chair the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). During his confirmation process, Clayton pledged to fully sever ties with his law firm and his Wall Street clients, which included Barclays Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, and Deutsche Bank AG.

After the Office of Government Ethics determined that there was no conflict of interest, Clayton was confirmed by the Senate in May 2017 by a 61-37 vote and assumed office.

Then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, praised the nomination and said he looked forward to Clayton’s leadership, while Democrats, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, voted against him due to his Wall Street ties.

During his tenure as SEC chairman, Clayton frequently testified before Congress on issues such as market integrity, digital asset regulation, cybersecurity, and US-China economic interdependence. After leaving office, he returned to Sullivan & Cromwell while also taking on executive roles at Apollo Global Management and American Express.

He also continued his academic work, serving as an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School since 2009 and at the Wharton School since 2021.

Between 2022 and 2025, he co-chaired the university’s Institute for Law and Economics.

New York prosecution

In June 2020, Trump announced he would appoint Clayton to the post of US Attorney for the Southern District of New York after dismissing then-US Attorney Geoffrey Berman.

Clayton expressed interest in the position but did not comment on whether he was aware that Berman would be dismissed.

The appointment did not materialize at the time, and Audrey Strauss was appointed to the role.

Clayton was nominated again for the US Attorney post for the Southern District of New York in 2025, at the beginning of Trump’s second term.

Clayton sought the office to replace an interim judge who had refused to assist the Department of Justice in dropping charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

Clayton’s appointment, which was not directly confirmed by the Senate, was finalized by the court’s own approval. At the time, The Wall Street Journal commented that Clayton, who typically avoided political controversies, found himself in the midst of a “partisan battle” with this move.

The most notable process conducted by Clayton’s prosecution office was the indictment and litigation process initiated in January against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on charges of “narco-terrorism” and other offenses.

Clayton’s team also played critical roles in reviewing documents related to Jeffrey Epstein and in the case of an Iraqi citizen accused of plotting attacks on US soil on behalf of Iran.

Recently, The New York Times claimed that Clayton spent frequent time with Trump, played golf, and was “often absent” from his office.

Like Bill Pulte, Jay Clayton has no prior experience in the intelligence world. Trump’s previous choice, Bill Pulte, had been accused of targeting Trump’s political opponents by filing criminal complaints over mortgage fraud allegations during his tenure as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).

While none of these cases resulted in convictions, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) launched an investigation into how the FHFA conducted its investigative processes.

Pulte’s lack of intelligence-gathering experience and the politically charged investigations he initiated drew intense criticism in Congress.

In this new phase, however, members of Congress have reacted more positively to Clayton’s nomination. Republican Senator John Thune said of Clayton, “I think he is a highly qualified professional with great skills to manage complex problems.”

Senator Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the committee that will vote on the nomination, also described Clayton as “very qualified.” According to The New York Times, CIA Director John Ratcliffe also supported Clayton’s appointment to the post.

Statements on election security

Days before being nominated as Director of National Intelligence, Clayton appeared as a guest on CNBC, where he addressed the possibility of irregularities in California’s elections.

Speaking about election security during the June 8 broadcast, Clayton said, “We are doing an absolutely terrible job, and the American people are right to question it.”

Arguing that the state’s laws—which allow mail-in ballots to be sent to all voters and allow votes to arrive after Election Day—”create opportunities for irregularities,” Clayton’s claims came at a time when Trump was asserting, without providing any evidence, that the elections were “rigged.”

Jay Clayton, who holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, completed his graduate studies at King’s College, Cambridge. He received his law degree in 1993, also from the University of Pennsylvania.