Trump's DNI pick clears key hurdle, reviving path for nation's top anti-terror surveillance program

Senate Republicans quietly advanced President Donald Trump’s pick to run the nation’s intelligence agencies and placed Congress back on a path to restart a crucial counterterrorism tool.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton, R-Ark., revealed that the panel voted U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton out of committee nine to eight during a closed-door session. That tees up a later confirmation vote for Clayton to serve as the Director of National Intelligence (DNI).

"Jay Clayton is a highly qualified nominee with a deep experience combatting a wide range of national security threats," Cotton said. "I’m pleased that the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to advance his nomination to be Director of National Intelligence."

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The role was previously vacated by former DNI Tulsi Gabbard and then hastily filled on an interim basis by Trump with Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte, who Democrats railed against as an unqualified loyalist who would weaponize the intelligence community against the president’s enemies.

Clayton, who served as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) during Trump’s first term, ended up becoming a victim of the political firestorm that surrounded Pulte.
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His first hearing was derailed by Trump, who demanded that the Senate confirm his replacement for the Southern District in New York and attach the SAVE America Act to must-pass legislation to reauthorize a key surveillance tool that has been inactive since June.

Clayton will now face a full confirmation vote in the Senate, where several Senate Democrats previously voted for him to be SEC chair.

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But his hearing was dominated by questions about whether he would admit that former President Joe Biden won the 2020 election and Trump had lost, which Clayton shrugged off as "theater."

That could play out on the Senate floor in the coming days, and he will need Democratic votes to clinch the nomination.

Meanwhile, movement on his nomination could open up a path to reauthorizing the nation’s top counterterrorism tool, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which was notably used to thwart a terrorist attack at a Taylor Swift concert years ago.

Democrats derailed the process after Trump appointed Pulte, but with a new face leading the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies, Section 702 could soon see the lights come back on.