Senate Confirms Jay Clayton as Director of National Intelligence in 51-47 Party-Line Vote

The Senate confirmed Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan and former SEC chairman, to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Tuesday, July 28, 2026, in a strict 51-47 party-line vote. Clayton replaces Bill Pulte, a housing official with no national security background who had served as acting director and used the role to pursue what critics described as retribution campaigns against Trump's perceived enemies.

Clayton initially attracted bipartisan goodwill, but lost Democratic support during his confirmation hearing after refusing to flatly state that Joe Biden won the 2020 election. In a tense exchange with Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia — a rising Democratic figure with 2028 presidential mentions — Clayton acknowledged Biden had been 'certified' as the winner but stopped short of calling him the rightful victor. The evasion proved disqualifying for Democrats, though it never seriously threatened his confirmation.

Ironically, some Democrats privately welcomed the outcome, viewing Clayton as a far safer steward than Pulte. The acting director had boasted on social media about executing a 'fifth and near-final round of terminations' — claiming a 30% staff reduction — though current and former officials questioned whether many of those cuts had actually been carried out. An earlier bipartisan push to confirm Clayton rapidly and block Pulte entirely collapsed when Trump withheld Clayton from hearings in order to pressure lawmakers on a voting-restriction bill.

Clayton was recommended for the role by CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and the two are expected to be more closely aligned than Ratcliffe and his predecessor Tulsi Gabbard, who stepped down in May after her husband's cancer diagnosis. Under Trump's second term, the DNI office has been marginalized, with Ratcliffe serving as the dominant intelligence voice on major decisions including a January raid in Venezuela and the ongoing Iran conflict. The DNI role has instead been used to selectively declassify documents tied to Trump's grievances against the so-called deep state.

Clayton's tenure as U.S. attorney also drew scrutiny: his office issued subpoenas to several journalists who had published stories revealing security concerns about Trump's Qatari-donated Air Force One jet. The Justice Department ultimately withdrew those subpoenas last week.