President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that Jay Clayton’s nomination to be the new Director of National Intelligence would not move forward until the Senate confirms one of his picks for U.S. Attorney.
In a lengthy post to Truth Social early Wednesday morning, Trump said he was canceling the scheduled Wednesday Senate hearing for Clayton, whom he called a “Great Patriot,” adding that it “will not be going forward until Jamie McDonald is approved to be U.S. Attorney” for the Southern District of New York. The president claimed in the same post that he will “not approve” an extension of the federal government’s surveillance powers without an election integrity bill being attached to it.
The Senate had scheduled Clayton’s confirmation hearing unusually early, reflecting the pressure on the upper chamber to pass an extension of section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that expired on June 12. The section is intended to permit the U.S. government surveillance of foreign targets, but in the process also allows the federal government to conduct warrantless searches of American citizens’ data.
“[T]o add a slight bit of intrigue but, for the Good of the Nation, and the People of our Country, I will not approve FISA without THE SAVE AMERICA ACT going along with it,” Trump wrote in his post, referring to election integrity legislation the Senate has been debating for months.
Trump has said that both political parties agreed to remove Bill Pulte as the temporary DNI as long as the FISA extension was approved. The president had nominated Pulte, a housing official, to replace outgoing DNI Tulsi Gabbard on a temporary basis and Clayton on a permanent basis.
“The Republicans agreed with Dumocrats to remove very fair, and talented, William Pulte, from serving as Acting DNI in return for getting FISA approved by the Dumocrats. However, the Republicans moved so fast with the hearings of the Great Jay Clayton, current U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, that Pulte would be gone before the Dumocrats would vote on FISA,” Trump said in the post. “Now, the Dumocrats are saying they will vote against FISA — So, the Republicans wound up having fulfilled their commitment, but Dumocrats broke the Deal.”
“Not complicated, actually, the Republicans fell into a trap,” he added.
Trump nominated McDonald to replace Clayton as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Earlier in the week, Senate Majority Leader John Thune signaled to reporters that his chamber would seek to extend FISA’s warrantless surveillance powers without the SAVE Act attached.
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