Senate confirms Jay Clayton as nation’s intelligence director
Clayton takes over a reduced intelligence office after 200 jobs were cut and Democrats raised concerns that he would not resist political pressure.
- On Tuesday, the Senate confirmed Jay Clayton, President Donald Trump's pick to lead the intelligence community, in a 51-47 vote, ending Bill Pulte's 40-day tenure as acting Director.
- Pulte, a housing executive with no national security experience, implemented staffing cuts that cumulatively axed approximately 30% of staff while focusing on declassifying 2020 election documents at the President's request.
- During a hearing two weeks ago, Clayton refused to say Joe Biden won the 2020 election, testifying it was "certified," prompting Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer to call his performance "abysmal."
- Clayton inherits an office described as "severely understaffed" with "deeply degraded" authority, positioned as a "deep state" target by Trump amid historic institutional decline.
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302 Articles
The U.S. Senate confirmed on July 28, 2026, with 51 votes in favour and 47 against, Jay Clayton as the new director of the Office of National Intelligence (ODNI); the nomination, promoted by President Donald Trump, puts an end to what many experts have branded as Bill Pulte's rugged interinity and opens a new chapter in the controversial relationship between the executive branch and the U.S. intelligence community.
Jay Clayton, a prosecutor in New York, charged Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro with advising his old friend Donald Trump on security issues.
The Senate, with Jay Clayton, has confirmed a technocrat as the coordinator of the American intelligence services, but the fact that he does not clearly recognise the election victory of Joe Biden in 2020 is a source of alarm for the Democrats.
Senate Confirms Jay Clayton as DNI in Party-Line Vote
The Senate confirmed Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence on a strict 51-47 party-line vote Tuesday, giving the nation's intelligence community a permanent leader after months of turmoil, and setting up a new fight over expired surveillance powers. Every Republican voted to install Clayton, a Manhattan federal prosecutor and former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, atop the sprawling apparatus that coordinates 18 intellige…
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