WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� President Donald Trump said Thursday that he plans to nominate Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and a former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, as .
Trump announced the nomination on social media amid pressure from Congress to name a permanent replacement for Tulsi Gabbard, who . Trump faced intense pushback over his decision to , head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as acting director. The job oversees the coordination of 18 intelligence agencies.
The situation has led to a after Democrats said they would refuse to renew foreign intelligence powers unless Trump pulled Pulte鈥檚 nomination and named a permanent nominee.
鈥淔ew people anywhere in the Legal Community are respected at the level of Jay,鈥� Trump wrote. 鈥淚 encourage the United States Senate to confirm Jay as soon as possible.鈥�
As the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, Clayton oversees the largest and most prestigious of the Justice Department鈥檚 prosecution offices, with a vast portfolio ranging from terrorism and espionage cases to security fraud and public corruption.
He took over from interim U.S. attorney Danielle Sassoon, who resigned in February after refusing to carry out orders from the Justice Department to drop corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams. The case was eventually dropped after prosecutors from Washington submitted a request to a judge.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., says the Senate could move 鈥渇airly quickly鈥� to confirm Clayton as Director of National Intelligence if the White House submits his paperwork soon.
He praised Clayton after Trump said on social media that he would nominate him for the job, saying he has a 鈥済reat reputation.鈥�
Democrats are holding up the renewal of a key surveillance law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, in protest of Trump鈥檚 decision to temporarily tap Pulte. They say they won鈥檛 support an extension of the law, which expires at midnight on Friday, until Trump withdraws Pulte鈥檚 appointment.
Trump previously said Pulte would take over on June 19. It is unclear whether the Senate could move quickly enough to confirm Clayton before that date.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know what realistic is, but we鈥檙e gonna probe the limits of it,鈥� Thune said.
Clayton appeared Monday on CNBC鈥檚 鈥淪quawk Box,鈥� where he raised questions about the integrity of California鈥檚 elections. Trump has claimed without evidence that the state鈥檚 slow count in its recent primaries meant the vote was rigged.
鈥淭he American people are right to question it,鈥� Clayton said, adding that the delay in results increased the opportunity for fraud.
He navigated his way through a 14-month tenure in the Southern District of New York without clashing with the federal judges in the busiest court in the nation, unlike his counterparts in upstate New York and New Jersey. After his interim term expired after 120 days, the judges of the Southern District appointed him as U.S. attorney.
Clayton was sworn in as U.S. attorney in April 2025 on the same day three prosecutors resigned, saying they felt pressured to admit wrongdoing or regret about prosecuting the now-dismissed corruption case against then-New York Mayor Eric Adams.
Then, weeks later, the office had to withstand controversy over the Trump administration鈥檚 firing of one of its most respected and successful prosecutors, Maurene Comey. She claims she was fired because of Trump鈥檚 dislike of her father, former FBI Director James Comey.
Under Clayton, the Manhattan U.S. attorney鈥檚 office facilitated the unsealing of thousands of pages of court records from the prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell 鈥� documents that were made public as part of the Justice Department鈥檚 release of records related to the late sex offender and his longtime confidant.
Clayton filed documents with the court explaining the process the government followed in releasing the materials.
Clayton has also overseen the prosecution of former Venezuelan President Nicol谩s Maduro and Maduro鈥檚 wife, Cilia Flores, on drug trafficking charges.
Trump doubled down on naming Pulte as the acting director, even though he emphasized it would be a short-term job. The president said he wanted Pulte to , which has already been significantly scaled back in his second term.
Gabbard resigned on May 22, citing her husband’s cancer diagnosis.
Trump said last week that he was interviewing five candidates for his pick to lead the agency permanently and that all have national security backgrounds.
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Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington and Michael Sisak and Larry Neumeister in New York contributed to this report.
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