The Senate Intelligence Committee has rescheduled Jay Clayton's confirmation hearing for July 15, giving a Wall Street lawyer with no intelligence background another shot at running the nation's spy agencies — and this time, both parties seem ready to roll out the carpet.
Clayton's resume reads like a revolving-door tutorial: partner at elite Wall Street firm Sullivan & Cromwell, then SEC chair during Trump's first term, then back to Sullivan & Cromwell, then installed as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. Now he's in line to oversee 18 intelligence agencies with a combined budget that dwarfs most federal departments. The same Democrats who spent years warning about Trump's appointments are cheering this one on — because the alternative is Bill Pulte.
Trump initially derailed Clayton's June 17 hearing, demanding the Senate first confirm Sullivan & Cromwell partner James McDonald to replace Clayton as U.S. attorney in Manhattan. The White House hasn't even sent McDonald's nomination to the Senate yet, according to NBC News. Trump also cited frustration over the expired Section 702 of FISA and the stalled SAVE America Act as reasons to slow-walk the process.
But the uniparty found its footing. Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, has spoken positively about Clayton. Rep. Jim Himes, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, posted on X that Clayton's "intelligence, temperament and deep commitment to public service will make him a terrific DNI."
The Democrats' enthusiasm isn't about Clayton's qualifications for intelligence work. It's about removing acting DNI Bill Pulte, who took over June 19 after Tulsi Gabbard stepped down citing her husband's cancer diagnosis. NBC News reports that Democrats and some Republicans have raised concerns about Pulte's lack of national security background and his role at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, where he helped the administration compile information for investigations into Trump's political opponents. Democrats have tied their support for reauthorizing the expired FISA provision to getting Pulte out and Clayton in.
NBC framed the rescheduling as a routine procedural step after Trump's temporary "derailment." Reuters barely bothered, publishing what amounted to a calendar notice. Neither outlet questioned why a corporate lawyer who spent his career on Wall Street regulation is now being handed the keys to the intelligence community.
The Senate confirmed Clayton as SEC chair in 2017 by a 61-37 vote. He was nominated to be SDNY U.S. attorney last year after his initial nomination stalled. Each time, the same pattern: a Sullivan & Cromwell man shuffled into a position of public trust, then shuffled back. Now the shuffle leads to the intelligence director's office.
The question neither party wants to answer: what qualifies a Wall Street lawyer to direct national intelligence? The answer, as usual, is that qualification was never the point. The point is who Clayton is — and who he answers to.
