The US Senate has confirmed Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence, approving Donald Trump’s nominee despite Democratic warnings that he could help the president interfere in future elections.
Clayton was confirmed by 51 votes to 47, with all Democratic senators voting against him.
In the United States, the director of national intelligence acts primarily as a co-ordinator for agencies including the CIA and the NSA, and delivers the president’s daily intelligence briefing.
Clayton has served since spring 2025 as US attorney for the Southern District of New York, after previously leading the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump’s first term.
During his Senate confirmation hearing in mid-July, Democratic members repeatedly pressed him on the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
They asked him several times who had won, seeking to establish whether he would contradict Trump, who continues to claim without evidence that he defeated Democrat Joe Biden.
Clayton replied repeatedly that Biden had been "certified" as the winner, but stopped short of saying directly that he had won the election.
Democratic Senator Adam Schiff said those remarks “suggest that if the president wants the intelligence agencies to cook up something to justify interference in the midterm elections, then Jay Clayton will not have the courage to stand up to him”.
Clayton’s nomination in June followed a separate controversy after Trump appointed close ally Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence to replace the outgoing Tulsi Gabbard.
Pulte, who was already heading a federal housing agency, had launched investigations into several of the Republican president’s political opponents.
