Who is Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as Director of National Intelligence, Jay Clayton?
Clayton is a Wall Street lawyer with zero intelligence experience, a documented record of Trump sycophancy, a portfolio riddled with conflicts of interest, and a history of embracing election denialism and extremist foreign policy rhetoric.
Clayton is Trump’s second nominee for DNI, and he’s just as unqualified as the first. While America is at war and facing unprecedented international threats, Trump is playing games with unqualified nominees and has canceled Clayton’s confirmation hearings.
In short, he is neither a qualified nor a serious choice for the nation’s top intelligence post.
“Jay Clayton is a Wall Street lawyer who peddled election lies and spent years as one of the many committed loyalists to Donald Trump. When he finally shows up, the Intelligence Committee should grill him like the unqualified political operative he is, not the intelligence professional he isn’t,” said American Bridge 21st Century spokesperson Brandon Weathersby.
Meet Jay Clayton:
Clayton Is Unqualified for the Role and Has No Business Running the Intelligence Community
- Clayton spent his career as a corporate dealmaker for Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns, and other Wall Street giants, and has no experience in the intelligence world.
- Clayton came to the U.S. Attorney’s office from Sullivan & Cromwell, a law firm the Wall Street Journal described as “more closely associated with Wall Street than perhaps any other law firm.” Foreign adversaries and intelligence operations were not part of his portfolio.
Clayton Is a Trump Loyalist Who Put Politics Over His Office
- When Trump’s Justice Department fired star prosecutor Maurene Comey, Clayton stayed silent and supported Trump’s retribution agenda.
- Clayton publicly endorsed Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund to pay out his right-wing allies and potentially violent January 6th insurrectionists. Clayton justified his support by suggesting that January 6 defendants had been prosecuted inappropriately.
- Clayton defended Trump shaking down the IRS to create a slush fund and exempt himself, his family, and their businesses from tax audits. Clayton described Trump’s taxpayer-funded slush fund deal as a good deal for the government.
Clayton Embraces Election Denialism
- Earlier this month, Clayton claimed without any evidence that people “are right to question” election integrity and that states without voter ID laws enable fraud.
Clayton Is A Walking Conflict of Interest
- Clayton oversaw the Epstein file review while personally holding between $1.5 million and $6 million in Apollo Global Management stock, a firm whose former CEO made $150 million in payments to Epstein and was later accused of raping a 16-year-old at Epstein’s mansion.
- He also held stock in JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Bank of New York Mellon, institutions Congress has alleged were conduits for Epstein-linked financial transactions, while simultaneously leading the Epstein investigation.
- Clayton supported the arrest of Nicolas Maduro at the same time he owned oil and gas stocks in companies that stood to benefit directly from the regime change operation in Venezuela that he publicly championed.
He Pushes A Dangerous Extremist Foreign Policy
- Clayton called Iran’s influence over the Strait of Hormuz a “47-year mistake” that the U.S. needs to “correct,” going well beyond any stated Trump administration position.
- He suggested the Maduro kidnapping operation should serve as a model for operations throughout Latin America, including Mexico, calling the question of sovereignty an “interesting law school question.”
Learn more about Clayton’s record on Research-Books.com
Published: Jun 17, 2026