Republicans Aim for Swift Confirmation of Jay Clayton as America’s Spy Chief

Senate Republicans are hoping to confirm Jay Clayton as the next Director of National Intelligence at a breakneck pace — a sign of clear opposition to President Trump’s decision to install Bill Pulte as the acting DNI at the end of the week. So far, no Democrats have said they will move to delay the confirmation process. Mr. Trump announced last week that Mr. Clayton, the sitting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and a former SEC chairman, would be nominated to lead the DNI’s office. The nomination was immediately met with praise from both sides of the aisle. What likely sweetens Mr. Clayton’s appeal among senators is the fact that Mr. Trump is still set to install Mr. Pulte — a housing finance bureaucrat behind many investigations into the president’s enemies — as acting DNI on Friday. As a result of that appointment, senators are hoping to have Mr. Clayton confirmed by Thursday at the earliest. “I’m pretty optimistic,” Senator Mike Rounds told the New York Sun Monday when asked if Mr. Clayton could be confirmed before Friday. “Number one, he’s the right guy for the job right now and I think our Democrat colleagues will naturally have the ability to stop it … but I think that he can get some bipartisan support.”Mr. Clayton was nominated to serve as Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor last year, though he never received a confirmation vote after it was unilaterally blocked by Senator Chuck Schumer. Under the Senate’s “blue slip” tradition, senators of both parties have the power to block judges and Senate-confirmed prosecutors from serving in their home states if they so choose. After four months of leading SDNY in an interim capacity, the judges of the Southern District of New York voted to make him the full-time U.S. attorney. The vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Senator Mark Warner, said over the weekend that he hopes Mr. Clayton can be confirmed by the end of the week, though he still has his own questions he wants to ask the nominee. Mr. Clayton’s confirmation hearing will take place on Wednesday. “We will get Clayton, I hope, confirmed as quickly as possible,” Mr. Warner said on “Face the Nation” Sunday. He says he plans to ask Mr. Clayton who won the 2020 election — a question that Trump nominees almost always dodge. Speaking on the Senate floor Monday, the majority leader, Senator John Thune, said he plans to bring the nomination to the floor as soon as possible. “Republicans here in the Senate have built a record of acting quickly on the president’s nominees, and we’re going to do the same with Mr. Clayton. The Senate Intelligence Committee has already announced that it will hold a hearing on Mr. Clayton’s nomination this week,” Mr. Thune said on the floor. “And once he is approved by the committee, it is my intention to bring his nomination to the floor very quickly,” he declared. Once Mr. Clayton’s confirmation hearing is over, the Senate Intelligence Committee will be able to move forward with the nomination within hours. If the committee votes to advance the nomination on Thursday morning, Mr. Thune could call up the nomination the same day. If no Democrat objects to a request to move the nomination forward on the same day, then Mr. Clayton could be confirmed as early as Thursday afternoon or evening.

Republicans Aim for Swift Confirmation of Jay Clayton as America’s Spy Chief

Republicans Aim for Swift Confirmation of Jay Clayton as America’s Spy Chief

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