U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton prepares to testify during the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on his nomination to be Director of National Intelligence on Capitol Hill on July 15, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Ken Cedeno | AFP | getty images
Jay Clayton, President Donald Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, refused to say whether Joe Biden won the 2020 election, claimed he didn’t know whether his predecessor Tulsi Gabbard took part in the raid of a Georgia elections office earlier this year and defended subpoenaing New York Times reporters at a contentious Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday.
Clayton, the former SEC chairman and current U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, appeared before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence more than a month after Trump announced his nomination and weeks after the president abruptly interrupted a planned confirmation hearing in June.
While a month ago it seemed that Clayton would have a relatively easy path to confirmation, Democrats challenged Clayton’s election comments and time as U.S. attorney. He is still likely to be confirmed in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., who just spoke to ms On Tuesday, before Thursday night’s speech where Trump is scheduled to deliver a speech on foreign efforts to overturn the 2020 election, he asked Clayton if she was aware of Gabbard’s presence in the raid on a Fulton County, Georgia elections office earlier this year.
Clayton said he only learned of Gabbard’s involvement from Ossoff during a private meeting earlier this week, which was widely reported.
“Is it Appropriate for the Director of National Intelligence to Oversee the Execution of Domestic Search Warrants at Sensitive Election Facilities? Yes or No?”. Ossoff asked. Clayton did not answer.
Ossoff said, “Your answers lack credibility. Your testimony lacks credibility.”
On several occasions during the nearly two-hour hearing, Clayton refused to answer who won the 2020 election, instead saying: “I’m not denying the election. Joe Biden was certified.”
Ossoff, at one point, called Clayton’s responses “inept.”
The committee is expected to vote on Clayton’s nomination next week. If the committee moves forward, the full Senate will consider it.
The process of Clayton’s nomination as DNI, a role that would give him access to the nation’s most sensitive secrets and authority over 18 intelligence agencies, has been mired in controversy due to Trump’s actions and the interim appointment of Bill Pulte, a close Trump ally and director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Bipartisan lawmakers have questioned whether Pulte — who launched mortgage-related investigations into Trump opponents while at the helm of the FHFA — was suitable for the post.
“I can’t think of any other example in the history of this committee where a President sends a nominee up, and then in a bipartisan way, we say we really want to move heaven and earth to move this nominee forward quickly because of the importance of the position, and then the President decides the Senate is moving too quickly on his own nominee, and keeps that nominee,” said Mark Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. D-Va., said at Clayton’s hearing Wednesday.
The DNI job opened in May when then-Director Gabbard announced plans to step down. Pulte took command later that month and followed Trump’s orders to fire dozens of high-ranking intelligence officials.
The morning of Clayton’s original hearing, Trump adopted TruthSocial And directed him not to appear saying that he was blocking the nomination. Trump said he held back in part because he wanted Congress to attach a controversial elections bill — which would impose photo identification rules and proof of citizenship for registration — to the renewal of an unrelated foreign surveillance law.
Following Trump’s appointment of Pulte, negotiations over that foreign surveillance law, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, failed. The program ended in June, as Democrats opposed Pulte’s appointment to the position.
In the wake of Pulte’s interim appointment, support for Clayton seemed widespread. But on Wednesday, he was questioned by Democrats on a Senate panel.
Senator Angus King of I-Maine questioned Clayton about a statement he made on CNBC about the California elections, in which he seemed to entertain the possibility of voter fraud.
“We had a problem, a deep problem with voting in America,” Clayton said during an appearance on “Squawk Box” in June. “In terms of integrity, we’re doing an absolutely terrible job, and the American people are right to question that.”
The king requested clarification.
“What this means is that the audit trail that we have available for our elections in many places is not the kind of audit trail you would expect in something so important,” Clayton said.
Asked by King whether voter fraud was a problem in the US election, Clayton said: “I don’t think we can say for sure what is, or isn’t, until we have better processes.”
Sens. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., both pressured Clayton Summons given to New York Times journalists This follows reporting on security concerns related to a new Air Force One gifted to Trump by Qatar last week.
Clayton issued the subpoenas, which The New York Times said were in some cases delivered to the homes of the journalists concerned on Friday. Those journalists were ordered to appear before a grand jury on Wednesday to testify “regarding alleged violations of federal criminal law.”
Clayton said he was not able to go into the specifics of the investigation.
“I want to say that I’m confident that the processes we have in place to protect the First Amendment and protect the freedom of the press do not result in journalists being intimidated,” Clayton said.