The Senate intelligence committee will move forward with its confirmation hearing for President Donald Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, Jay Clayton, despite the president declaring it would be canceled until the Senate approves a replacement for Clayton, the current U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), the committee’s chairman, wrote in a post on X that unless the president directs Clayton not to appear or withdraws his nomination, the panel will proceed with its scheduled hearing for Clayton as the upper chamber looks to break a gridlock on an expired foreign spy program.
In an early morning Truth Social post, Trump announced that the hearing for Clayton would not take place until Jamie McDonald is approved as the next U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, and until that happens, top housing official Bill Pulte will remain in place to become the acting DNI on June 19.
“I don’t want to take Jay Clayton away from the great job he is doing until Jamie is in place,” Trump said in a 3:54 a.m. post on Truth Social.
Clayton was set to appear before the committee at 2 p.m. It’s unclear whether Clayton will show up for the hearing or skip the proceedings. The White House referred the Washington Examiner to the president’s Truth Social post when asked about Clayton’s plans for the hearing.
When asked by reporters during a bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of the Republic of India how long Pulte will serve as acting DNI, Trump said: “as long as it takes to get everybody else approved.”
“It was a rush act by the Democrats,” Trump said. “All of a sudden, they want to get, why are they afraid of this guy? I mean, they’re so afraid of him, they’ll do anything not to have Pulte go in there. He’s a very capable guy, and they’re worried about that.”
However, despite Trump’s demand that McDonald be approved before Clayton’s hearing can proceed, a source familiar with the situation confirmed that the White House has not yet formally sent over McDonald’s nomination for consideration.
Republicans hoped to fast-track Clayton’s confirmation in order to appease Democrats, who have withheld their support for an extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act over Trump’s tapping of Pulte to take over as acting DNI from outgoing Tulsi Gabbard.
But Trump’s post is threatening to derail that timeline and, with it, any hope that Section 702, which allows warrantless surveillance abroad, can be renewed after congressional approval for the spy program lapsed last week.
Alongside Trump’s demand that McDonald be approved, the president has demanded that any extension of Section 702 include the voter ID legislation known as the SAVE America Act.
“The Republicans moved so fast with the hearings of the Great Jay Clayton, current U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, that Pulte would be gone before the Dumocrats would vote on FISA,” Trump wrote in his post.
The president went on to say that to add “a slight bit of intrigue,” he will “not approve FISA without THE SAVE AMERICA ACT going along with it.”
“Not complicated, actually, the Republicans fell into a trap,” Trump wrote.
David Sivak and Mabinty Quarshie contributed to this report.