Trump now wants attorney Jay Clayton for national intelligence director
by Lisa Hornung · UPIJune 11 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump said Thursday that he will nominate Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence hours after the House voted down an extension of the FISA law due to his nomination of Bill Pulte for the position.
Clayton is the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and is the former chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Thursday morning the House rejected the temporary FISA extension bill just one day after Trump leaned into his choice of Pulte on Truth Social. House members have already left for recess, and Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is set to expire Friday. The measure was a short-term extension.
House members aren't due back until June 23.
Trump announced Pulte's nomination on June 2, replacing the outgoing Director of National intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who leaves June 30. After pushback from critics, Trump then announced that Pulte was only going to take the post temporarily. Pulte has no intelligence experience and is the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. He has used his position to investigate some of the president's opponents and allege mortgage fraud.
"Few people anywhere in the Legal Community are respected at the level of Jay [Clayton]. I encourage the United States Senate to confirm Jay as soon as possible, Trump posted on Truth Social at 2 p.m. Thursday.
Earlier Thursday, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said there would be no point in bringing the House back from recess.
"We passed a three-year extension on April 29. It is sitting in the hopper over there as a live bill. Just now, I attempted to pass a short-term extension for three weeks, clean extension, no changes to the law, just to make sure that the people are not subjected to great harm, and the Democrats -- 199 of them -- voted against it and applauded themselves as they left the building," Johnson said. "What would be the point of me going through this exercise over and over? The House has done every single thing."