Senate Republicans confirmed Jay Clayton, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, as the new head of the U.S. intelligence community, a position that’s become central to President Donald Trump’s efforts to undermine U.S. elections.
With the Senate’s 51-47 vote Tuesday, Clayton will take control of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) after Trump has oriented the agency toward supporting his false election claims.
Clayton will replace Bill Pulte, a top housing finance official who has served as acting director of national intelligence (DNI) since former DNI Tulsi Gabbard’s resignation in June. Under Pulte and Gabbard, ODNI has probed election conspiracy theories and helped declassify intelligence to bolster Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
Clayton, a securities lawyer by trade who has no known intelligence background, assumes the DNI role after making alarming claims on U.S. elections in recent weeks.
Though he said he was “not an election denier” during his confirmation hearing earlier this month, Clayton repeatedly declined to clearly state who won the 2020 election.
Instead, he said “Biden was certified as the president of the United States,” which is a carefully worded statement several Trump nominees have used to avoid explicitly saying Biden won — and, by extension, that Trump lost the 2020 contest.
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