Trump To Nominate Jay Clayton For Director Of National Intelligence

President Donald Trump said Thursday he will nominate Jay Clayton, the Manhattan U.S attorney, to be the next director of national intelligence.

In a post to social media, Trump urged Congress to confirm Clayton “as soon as possible.”

Clayton’s nomination comes after Trump tapped housing official Bill Pulte to serve in the role in an acting capacity, triggering an uproar on Capitol Hill. Pulte is best known for pushing mortgage fraud accusations against Trump’s political foes.

Trump’s announcement came just after House and Senate lawmakers left the Capitol for the weekend without extending a key surveillance power, which expires Friday at midnight. Democrats opposed any extension so long as Pulte remained in line to become acting director. Trump has not publicly backed off those plans, so it appears unlikely Clayton’s proposed nomination unlocks an immediate solution to the impasse.

Legislators lambasted the Pulte pick, pointing out that he had no national security experience — a requirement for the position.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune praised Clayton for having “a great reputation as being an incredibly competent manager” and a “very qualified professional with a great skill set.”

But it remained unclear how quickly the Senate might confirm Clayton, who will have to fill out a detailed questionnaire, undergo an FBI background check and sit for a public hearing, among other steps before a final vote.

Thune said he hoped Clayton could be processed “fairly quickly” given his prior confirmation as Securities and Exchange commissioner: “I don’t know what realistic is but we’re going to probe the limits of it.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Trump’s announcement did not change Democrats’ posture on a FISA extension.

“It doesn’t matter what else they do. Pulte has got to be gone,” he says.

The director of national intelligence serves the president’s top intelligence adviser. They are also responsible for overseeing the spy community’s budget, and coordinating intelligence analysis across the 18 U.S. spy agencies.

The DNI does not have the authority to order foreign spying operations, however, and their influence from administration to administration has waxed and waned with the officeholder’s personal rapport with the president.

That was a major obstacle for the ODNI under Tulsi Gabbard, who never developed a trusted relationship with Trump. The former Democrat and once-outspoken opponent of U.S. wars abroad saw her role diminish as the White House launched military operations in Iran and Venezuela. On intelligence and foreign policy matters, Trump has instead leaned heavily on his CIA director, John Ratcliffe, and secretary of state, Marco Rubio.

Trump told the Wall Street Journal last week that one benefit of installing Pulte as the temporary DNI was that he would be “less shackled” and therefore willing to slash the office’s size. Gabbard herself had touted downsizing the office by 40 percent. Support for further cuts on the Hill appeared to grow in the aftermath of Putle’s appointment.

Kelsey Brugger contributed to this report.