{"id":263677,"date":"2026-06-11T20:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T20:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/263677\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T20:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T20:41:09","slug":"trump-picks-manhattan-u-s-district-attorney-jay-clayton-as-national-intelligence-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/263677\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump picks Manhattan U.S. District Attorney Jay Clayton as national intelligence director"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"2025-05-19T214941Z_231401766_RC29LEAQVSPF_RTRMADP_3_PEOPLE-SEAN-COMBS\"\t\t\t<\/p>\n

U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, who Trump just tapped to lead the country\u2019s national intelligence operations. <\/p>\n

Reuters<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump tapped current Manhattan U.S. District Attorney Jay Clayton on Thursday to head the country\u2019s national intelligence operations<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Clayton just began his tenure leading the Southern District of New York <\/a>after Trump appointed him last spring to lead what\u2019s considered one of the country\u2019s premier legal institutions, handling some of the Justice Department\u2019s most complex, high-profile cases.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Southern District of New York did not respond to a request for comment. Under Clayton\u2019s brief leadership, the office has landed a high-profile conviction of Manhattan real estate brokers and brothers Alon, Oren and Tal Alexander on a sprawling sex trafficking indictment and handled the prosecution of Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro.<\/p>\n

Clayton previously headed the federal Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump\u2019s first term. In his position heading up the Southern District of New York, he said he would be looking to crack down on street crime<\/a>, like gun and fentanyl offenses, an unusual aim for the Manhattan U.S. attorney\u2019s office that\u2019s historically been focused on high-level prosecution.<\/p>\n

\"\"Jay Clayton, left, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York at the New York City Bar Association in December, 2025, being interviewed by James M. McDonald, a Sullivan and Cromwell attorney.Rick Kopstein<\/p>\n

Clayton\u2019s nomination to lead the office, which includes the Central Intelligence and National Intelligence Agencies, will be subject to confirmation from the U.S. Senate. <\/p>\n

It comes as Trump\u2019s interim pick to head the country\u2019s national intelligence operations while he searches for its permanent leader after Tulsi Gabbard\u2019s May resignation<\/a> \u2013 federal housing official Bill Pulte \u2013 has stirred controversy<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pulte is currently the director of federal housing and is considered a controversial<\/a> Trump ally, with Senators saying<\/a> he doesn\u2019t have relevant national security experience to lead the office.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The federal housing official is still set to take the Director of National Intelligence reins next week, on June 19, something senators have voiced concern over \u2013 Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told CNBC<\/a> Pulte was a \u201cnational security risk,\u201d and the Senate would explore confirming Clayton before Pulte can enter the seat.<\/p>\n

In his Truth Social post<\/a> announcing Clayton\u2019s nomination, Trump called him \u201cvery highly respected,\u201d citing his prior role as a partner at prominent New York law firm Sullivan and Cromwell.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFew people anywhere in the Legal Community are respected at the level of Jay,\u201d Trump wrote. \u201cI encourage the United States Senate to confirm Jay as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, who Trump just tapped to lead the country\u2019s national intelligence operations. Reuters President Donald…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[28920,75,84,83,102244,9,24,63,15362],"class_list":["post-263677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-jay-clayton","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-national-intelligence","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-southern-district-of-new-york"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}