{"id":139272,"date":"2026-07-15T14:03:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T20:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/trumps-intelligence-nominee-jay-clayton-clashes-with-democrats-over-2020-election\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T14:03:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T20:03:20","slug":"trumps-intelligence-nominee-jay-clayton-clashes-with-democrats-over-2020-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/trumps-intelligence-nominee-jay-clayton-clashes-with-democrats-over-2020-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s intelligence nominee Jay Clayton clashes with Democrats over 2020 election"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jay
Jay Clayton testifies during a Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing to be the next Director of National Intelligence on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, July 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Mariam Zuhaib)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Mariam Zuhaib)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump\u2019s pick to head the nation\u2019s intelligence agencies struggled to win Democratic support in a contentious confirmation hearing Wednesday where he clashed repeatedly with them over the 2020 election.<\/p>\n

Democrats asked Jay Clayton<\/a>, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and a former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, over and over again whether former President Joe Biden won the election and defeated Trump. Echoing many of Trump’s nominees, Clayton said many times that the election was \u201ccertified” for Biden, declining to say outright that the Democrat won.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m not going to get into this with you,\u201d Clayton told Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, the last of several Democrats on the committee to grill Clayton on the 2020 election. Clayton appeared frustrated and flustered as Ossoff repeated the question several times. \u201cI’ve answered it,” he said.<\/p>\n

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, who had praised Clayton\u2019s nomination when Trump picked him for the role last month, expressed exasperation with him at the end of the hearing. Democrats say they are concerned that Trump will try to direct intelligence agencies to influence U.S. elections as the president has repeated his false claims that the 2020 contest was stolen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve known Mr. Clayton for some time, I worked with him closely when he was at the SEC,\u201d said Warner, the top Democrat on the intelligence panel. \u201cBut I am bitterly disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Clayton has broad support among Republicans, the acrimony with Democrats could be a blow to GOP leaders who had hoped to gain their consent for a quick vote to replace temporary intelligence director Bill Pulte<\/a>, a former housing official with no known intelligence experience and who used his previous administration perch<\/a> to target perceived adversaries of the president.<\/p>\n

Senators in both parties have criticized Pulte, and Republicans had hoped to confirm Clayton immediately after he was nominated in June so Pulte did not take over when Gabbard left office. But Trump delayed Clayton\u2019s nomination, allowing Pulte to take the job temporarily.<\/p>\n

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said the committee will vote on Clayton’s nomination next week.<\/p>\n

Clayton emphasizes national security experience<\/strong><\/p>\n

Clayton did not mention Pulte in the hearing. But he emphasized his own government and national security experience, attempting to assuage senators in both parties.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw firsthand how a strong national security apparatus depends on decisive judgment, discipline, integrity, and effective communication and cooperation across different branches of the government,\u201d Clayton said in his opening statement. \u201cIf confirmed as Director of National Intelligence, I will commit to upholding these principles every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cotton expressed frustration last month when the hearing was delayed. He said in his opening statement Wednesday that Clayton has a reputation for operating with \u201cmorality, decency and integrity\u201d in his previous positions and that he hopes his nomination will win bipartisan support.<\/p>\n

Democrats press Clayton on Gabbard’s election activities <\/strong><\/p>\n

Democrats also pressed Clayton on former National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard’s visit to a Georgia election office<\/a> earlier this year during an FBI search related to the 2020 election. Trump administration officials have given varying explanations for Gabbard’s involvement in the search, which appeared to be outside of her intelligence role.<\/p>\n

Clayton declined to say whether Gabbard’s visit was appropriate or how he would handle the same situation. At one point he said he wasn’t aware of Gabbard’s visit before this week, then later appeared to backtrack, saying \u201cit wasn’t something on my mind\u201d before he started to prepare for the hearing.<\/p>\n

Warner said it \u201cstrains credibility\u201d that Clayton wasn\u2019t aware of Gabbard\u2019s election activities.<\/p>\n

Democrats also asked Clayton about Trump\u2019s announcement that he will deliver a primetime address on Thursday with a focus on elections, after the president suggested he could revisit long-debunked conspiracy theories about his 2020 defeat. Clayton said he had has no involvement with that speech.<\/p>\n

As US attorney in Manhattan, Clayton oversees vast portfolio <\/strong><\/p>\n

Clayton is currently the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, one of the most prestigious of the Justice Department\u2019s prosecution offices. His cases have ranged from terrorism and espionage cases to security fraud and public corruption.<\/p>\n

Democrats pressed Clayton on subpoenas of four New York Times journalists after they reported on security concerns involving the new, Qatari-gifted Air Force One<\/a>. The Committee to Protect Journalists has called the subpoenas \u201can extraordinary escalation in President Trump\u2019s efforts to threaten and intimidate independent news organizations and have a chilling effect on the work of journalists across the country.”<\/p>\n

Clayton said he was not able to discuss the details of the subpoenas and declined to elaborate on whether he spoke to the White House before they were issued. He said he is \u201cconfident in procedures we have in place to protect freedom of press.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under Clayton, the office also facilitated the unsealing of thousands of pages of court records from the prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> and Ghislaine Maxwell<\/a> \u2014 documents that were made public as part of the Justice Department\u2019s release of records related to the late sex offender and his longtime confidant.<\/p>\n

Clayton has also overseen the prosecution of former Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a> and Maduro\u2019s wife, Cilia Flores, on drug trafficking charges.<\/p>\n

Confirmation vote could unlock renewal of surveillance authority <\/strong><\/p>\n

Clayton\u2019s confirmation could potentially clear the way for bipartisan legislation to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act<\/a>, or FISA, which stalled last month when Democrats had said they would not provide the necessary votes to pass the bill unless Pulte\u2019s temporary appointment was withdrawn.<\/p>\n

The law, which aims to prevent terrorist attacks by monitoring the communications of targeted foreigners located outside the United States, expired in June.<\/p>\n

Even if Democrats relent, it is unclear if Trump would sign the bill. He said in his June social media post delaying Clayton\u2019s nomination that he would not sign the FISA renewal without his legislation to require proof of citizenship for all voters<\/a>. The voting bill does not have enough support to pass the Senate.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., joined at left by Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., questions Jay Clayton, President Donald Trump's pick to head the nation's intelligence agencies, as he appears for his confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, July 15, 2026. (AP Photo\/J. Scott Applewhite)<\/span>(AP Photo\/J. Scott Applewhite)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jay Clayton testifies during a Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing to be the next Director of National Intelligence on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, July 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Mariam Zuhaib)(AP Photo\/Mariam Zuhaib) WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump\u2019s pick to head the nation\u2019s intelligence agencies struggled to win Democratic support in a contentious confirmation hearing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":139273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5734],"tags":[],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-139272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-associated-press"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139272"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=139272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}