The tension reached a boiling point in Congress earlier on Thursday, when a proposed three-week extension to an expansive government surveillance authority went up in flames<\/a> on the House floor.<\/p>\n That authority, section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, expires at midnight on Friday. Democrats said they wouldn\u2019t support its extension until Trump ousted Pulte for someone else.<\/p>\n Clayton is that new option and, as head of the most prestigious federal prosecutor\u2019s office in the country, perhaps a choice that could win more bipartisan support. His prosecutors indicted Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a>, the then-president of Venezuela, on narco-terrorism charges, leading to Maduro\u2019s capture by U.S. forces earlier this year.<\/p>\n Clayton\u2019s office also oversaw the review and release of thousands of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, after Trump\u2019s 2024 election win sparked renewed public interest in the case.<\/p>\n It is not immediately clear who would take over in Clayton\u2019s absence. A spokesperson for the Southern District of New York didn\u2019t immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday.<\/p>\n Clayton took the reins of the prosecutor\u2019s office at a tumultuous time. He replaced the district\u2019s interim U.S. attorney Danielle Sassoon in April 2025 \u2014 Sassoon resigned after refusing to comply with orders from top Justice Department officials to drop corruption charges against then-New York City Mayor Eric Adams<\/a>.<\/p>\n The case was eventually dismissed, but not before raising serious concerns about the sovereignty of the DOJ and Trump\u2019s White House.<\/p>\n Since then, Clayton has been a regular on cable news programs. Most recently, he appeared on CNBC earlier this week and parroted baseless conspiracy theories about the integrity of California\u2019s mayoral election.<\/p>\n \u201cThe American people are right to question it,\u201d Clayton said of the primary results, echoing unproven claims from Trump that the election was rigged against a Republican candidate.<\/p>\n Even if Clayton is a more palatable option than Pulte for lawmakers, Trump\u2019s belated choice to nominate him may not immediately solve his Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act problem in Congress. Both the House and the Senate are scheduled to be out of session next week for Juneteenth, meaning the program may not get extended until late June at the earliest.<\/p>\n The specific element that lawmakers were looking to extend was a provision that granted U.S. intelligence broad legal authority to conduct surveillance on foreign nationals abroad without a warrant.<\/p>\n When the vote failed, House Speaker Mike Johnson laid blame squarely on Democrats, who he called \u201cshameful\u201d for holding the extension as a \u201cpolitical hostage\u201d over their distrust for Pulte.<\/p>\n However, the vote failed to capture even a simple majority in the Republican-controlled House. Nineteen Republicans voted against the measure, joining 199 Democrats.<\/p>\n Our weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing
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