Trump to name James McDonald – one of his lawyers – as Wall Street’s top cop

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he planned to appoint James McDonald as US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the federal prosecutor whose office handles many of the most high-profile cases involving Wall Street.

McDonald would replace Jay Clayton, whom Trump nominated as US director of national intelligence less than two weeks after a congressional backlash against his interim appointee, housing official Bill Pulte.

Trump had tapped Pulte after Tulsi Gabbard, the current director of intelligence, announced her resignation.

McDonald, whose district includes Manhattan, was director of enforcement at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for almost four years and also an assistant US attorney at SDNY for three years.

He is part of the legal team handling Trump’s pending appeal of felony convictions in New York related to hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential election.

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McDonald was also part of the legal team that last month secured a favourable outcome for Indian billionaire Gautam Adani when the Trump administration Justice Department dropped a fraud and conspiracy case that had been brought under the Biden administration.