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The Senate voted Tuesday to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the nation’s intelligence community, approving U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence in a 51-47 party-line vote.
Clayton, who currently serves as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, will assume leadership of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) as the agency undergoes significant restructuring, including major workforce reductions initiated under the Trump administration.
His confirmation comes amid ongoing criticism from Democratic lawmakers and former intelligence officials, who have accused the White House of politicizing the intelligence community and shrinking the agency responsible for coordinating the nation’s 18 intelligence organizations.
Following the vote, Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., said he opposed Clayton despite previously viewing him as a qualified candidate.
“Having known and worked with Jay for years, I was encouraged when he was first nominated for the position of DNI,” Warner said in a statement. “Unfortunately, I came away from his confirmation process with serious reservations about whether he would be willing to stand up to political pressure when it matters most.”
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., praised Clayton’s confirmation, calling him well suited to oversee the nation’s intelligence apparatus.
“Jay Clayton is a highly qualified nominee with deep experience combatting a wide range of national security threats,” Cotton said. “As U.S. attorney, Mr. Clayton has worked hand in glove with our intelligence agencies and counterterrorism personnel to lock up criminals who threaten our national security.”
Clayton takes over an office that has been dramatically downsized in recent months.
Earlier Tuesday, Acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte announced what he described as a fifth round of workforce reductions since assuming the acting role in June. In a social media post, Pulte said the office had undergone “an approximately 30% Staff Reduction from Weeks Ago,” though he did not disclose how many employees were laid off or reassigned.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence employed roughly 2,000 people at the beginning of Trump’s second term. Former intelligence officials estimate the latest reductions could leave the agency with about 1,000 employees after former Director Tulsi Gabbard proposed cutting the workforce by roughly 40%.
Neither ODNI nor the White House provided additional details about the staffing changes.
Warner’s office criticized the administration for failing to brief Congress on the cuts.
“The Acting DNI has been quick to announce firings and make public claims about them, but has so far declined to provide the Senate Intelligence Committee with the information necessary to assess the accuracy of those statements or the basis for those decisions,” Warner spokesperson Rachel Cohen said.
Congress established the Office of the Director of National Intelligence following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to improve information sharing among federal intelligence agencies.
Trump and several Republican lawmakers, however, have argued the office has grown into an unnecessarily large bureaucracy and have supported efforts to reduce its size.
Clayton is expected to bring more traditional legal and prosecutorial experience to the role than his predecessor. He replaces Pulte, who was appointed acting director after Tulsi Gabbard stepped down, citing her husband’s cancer diagnosis.
During his confirmation hearing earlier this month, Clayton declined to directly answer whether President Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, avoiding a response that could have put him at odds with Trump, who has continued to claim the election was fraudulent despite courts and election officials rejecting those allegations.
Democrats said Clayton’s reluctance to answer raised concerns about whether he would provide objective intelligence assessments if they conflicted with the president’s views.
Pulte previously led the Federal Housing Finance Agency, where he launched investigations into individuals whom Trump had publicly criticized before being tapped to temporarily lead the intelligence office.
Clayton now assumes permanent leadership as the administration continues reshaping the nation’s intelligence agencies ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
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