Senate postpones confirmation hearing for intel chief after Trump's call to delay

The Republican chairman of the Senate intelligence committee says lawmakers will move ahead with a confirmation hearing Wednesday for Jay Clayton to serve as director of national intelligence.

That's despite an overnight post from President Trump, who said he is delaying the nomination and blocking the renewal of a surveillance tool at the center of the U.S. intelligence apparatus in order to pressure the Senate to advance a long-stalled voting bill and also advance another of his nominees for a separate position.

"Jay Clayton is a pending nominee before the Intelligence Committee. We will proceed with his hearing as scheduled unless the president directs him not to appear or withdraws his nomination," said Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., in a post on social media.

Trump's attempt to derail the confirmation came as a surprise social media post in the middle of the night less than 12 hours before Clayton was scheduled to appear before his confirmation hearing. Trump, who is currently at the G7 Summit in France, issued his demands in a post just before 4 a.m. eastern on Truth Social.

In the post, Trump said the plan to quickly approve Clayton was part of a deal with Democrats to derail his previous, temporary pick, Bill Pulte, who has no intelligence experience and has been criticized as a political attack dog for the president.

He went on to say he is demanding that reauthorization of the surveillance tool known as FISA Section 702 must be tied to passage of the SAVE America ACT, a GOP voting bill that would require voters to show a document proving their U.S. citizenship, like a passport or a birth certificate, when they register to vote. The legislation failed in the Senate earlier this month.

"Regarding the approval of our Great Patriot, Jay Clayton, we are cancelling the Senate Hearing RE: DNI today, and will not be going forward until Jamie McDonald is approved to be U.S. Attorney. In the meantime, Bill Pulte will remain as the Acting Director of National Intelligence. Thank you for your attention to this matter!" Trump concluded.

It is a dramatic reversal for a nomination that had the potential to speed through the Senate, possibly with bipartisan support, and exposes a notable rift between the Republican-controlled Senate and president of the same party.

Who is Jay Clayton?

Clayton currently serves as a federal prosecutor, in charge of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. In that role, he's overseen a number of high-profile cases including the indictment and arrest of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. He was previously confirmed by the Senate to serve as the head of the Securities and Exchange commission during President Trump's first term.

The director of national intelligence leads the intelligence community across 18 agencies and organizations and advises the president on national security issues, including through drafting and delivering the President's Daily Brief.

Senate lawmakers hoped for a speedy confirmation for Clayton, aiming to have him sworn in by June 19, the date that President Trump has said that his controversial pick for acting director, Bill Pulte, will step into the role on a temporary basis.

Controversy over Bill Pulte, Trump's interim pick

Pulte's appointment earlier this month was met with dismay on Capitol Hill. He currently serves as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and would enter the job with no national intelligence experience.

He has used his current sub-cabinet level role to assail the president's perceived foes. He was a cheerleader for Trump's pressure campaign that sought to push then-Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell to resign. Pulte has also used his social media following to broadcast accusations that several of the president's perceived enemies had committed mortgage fraud, including Fed official Lisa Cook, New York's Democratic Attorney General Letitia James and Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. Each has denied wrongdoing.

Given his record, Democrats and even some Republicans worry he will weaponize the key national security role. The uproar over Pulte contributed to the expiration on Friday of a nearly two decade-old spy law that underpins a great deal of U.S. intelligence gathering.

The president has suggested that Pulte will serve in the role for some amount of time. Trump told the Wall Street Journal he hopes to see Pulte declassify documents related to the 2020 election and downsize the agency.

Pressure to move quickly

Senators appeared highly motivated to move Clayton quickly through the process before Trump's sudden intervention. They had hoped to prevent or minimize Pulte's time in the job. Clayton's confirmation hearing date was set within hours of his nomination to the post.

If confirmed, Clayton would succeed outgoing director Tulsi Gabbard, who announced her resignation last month citing her husband's cancer diagnosis.

During her brief tenure, Gabbard had been a controversial director. A former Democrat, she was nominated to the role despite her lack of experience in U.S. intelligence and remarks supporting autocratic leaders in Syria and Russia. She was ultimately confirmed in a near-party line vote.

While serving as director of national intelligence, charged with presenting an objective view of the U.S. intelligence community's assessments to policymakers including the president, Gabbard attended an FBI raid on a Georgia election office that has been at the heart of Trump's baseless election fraud conspiracy theories.
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