Donald Trump abruptly canceled Jay Clayton's Senate confirmation hearing for director of national intelligence early Wednesday, a move that keeps his controversial acting pick Bill Pulte in the role for at least several more weeks.
The president announced the decision via Truth Social in the predawn hours, stating "we are cancelling the Senate Hearing RE: DNI Today," though the White House holds no formal power to cancel Senate proceedings. Clayton did not appear for the hearing.
Trump's reasoning centered on timing and political leverage. He said Republicans had rushed Clayton's nomination so quickly that "Pulte would be gone before the Dumocrats would vote on FISA," referencing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. He also insisted he wanted to see Clayton's replacement as U.S. attorney confirmed first, and added a new condition: no FISA renewal unless it includes the Save America Act, a restrictive voting measure.
The move highlights the turbulence surrounding Trump's intelligence leadership. Tulsi Gabbard stepped down from the DNI role late last month, and Pulte became acting director after Trump tapped him for the permanent job. His appointment immediately triggered bipartisan criticism. Democrats and some Republicans questioned whether his background as chair of a federal mortgage regulation agency qualified him to oversee 18 U.S. spy agencies, and the objections stalled the administration's push for FISA renewal.
Clayton, by contrast, has drawn some bipartisan praise. His SEC chairmanship during Trump's first term and decades as a Wall Street attorney gave him more conventional credentials, and both Democratic Representative Jim Himes and Republican Senator Thom Tillis lauded his nomination. Yet Clayton has shown the same political alignment as Trump's other appointees, publicly endorsing the former president's election fraud claims on CNBC in June.
During that appearance, Clayton said the nation was "doing an absolutely terrible job" on election integrity and criticized California's mail-voting practices as creating "opportunity for fraud," echoing Trump's baseless "rigged election" rhetoric.
If confirmed, Clayton could accelerate intelligence operations that began under Gabbard. That tenure included unusual moves such as Gabbard's appearance at an FBI raid on a Georgia election facility and the seizure of voting machines in Puerto Rico based on conspiracy theories about Venezuelan interference. Clayton himself had signed off on an indictment against Nicolás Maduro on related charges.
Senate Democrats have proposed a workaround to the FISA impasse. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, suggested that either Gabbard or her deputy Aaron Lukas could step in to guide the agency until a permanent director is confirmed, offering a path to extend the surveillance law's expiring provisions.
Author James Rodriguez: "Pulte's extended stay as acting DNI while Trump plays games with confirmation timing and voting bills is a recipe for chaos in the intelligence community, and the FISA fight is turning into a hostage situation over Trump's election agenda."
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