Democrats press intel nominee Jay Clayton in tense confirmation hearing

Skip to content

Jay Clayton, President Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, faced sharp questions from Democratic senators Wednesday about Trump’s attempts to revive investigations into the 2020 election.

Clayton’s confirmation is essential to reauthorizing the U.S.’s foreign spy powers, which expired more than a month ago. Democrats have refused to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act as long as Trump loyalist Bill Pulte serves as acting director of national intelligence.

But that program was not the focus of Clayton’s confirmation hearing on Wednesday. Instead, senators took the opportunity to grill Clayton on elections, staffing in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and subpoenas of journalists, among other topics.

Democratic Sens. Mark Warner (Va.), Mark Kelly (Ariz.) and Jon Ossoff (Ga.) as well as Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) all separately asked Clayton whether he believed former President Biden won the 2020 presidential election.

“I’m not an election denier,” Clayton said in response to Warner and King, adding that Biden “was certified” as president.

“He went through our electoral process,” Clayton said.

That wasn’t enough for the other Democrats.

“You refuse to answer a basic question about who won a presidential election, but you ask to lead America’s intelligence community,” Ossoff said. “Isn’t it humiliating to be unable to answer this question, to have to indulge the president’s delusions?”

Ossoff also pressed Clayton on his knowledge of outgoing Director Tulsi Gabbard’s presence at FBI raids of election offices in Fulton County, Georgia, earlier this year. Ossoff added that the Senate Intelligence Committee is “probing” Gabbard’s involvement in the raids.

Fulton County is at the center of Trump’s fraud claims about the 2020 election.

“Are you aware that former Director Gabbard testified that her presence at the raid was, quote, ‘requested by the president’?” Ossoff asked.

“I’m not aware of that until now,” Clayton replied.

“Okay, you are now aware of that,” said Ossoff.

Warner suggested after this exchange that he remained unsatisfied with Clayton’s answers on the election questions.

“I trust you, I know you, but it strains credibility to think that you are not aware of Director Gabbard’s intervention in domestic election activities in Fulton County, and that that was subject of a great deal of consternation and review.”

Warner also brought up a speech Trump is scheduled to give Thursday evening, which the president has said will discuss elections and newly declassified intelligence reports related to election security.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) asked Clayton near the outset to confirm that he was not involved with any such reports as he is not yet in the role of director of national intelligence.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) also pressed Clayton about subpoenas he issued to several New York Times journalists who had reported about potential security flaws with the president’s new Qatari-donated Air Force One.

“It’s not even clear that the subpoenas that you signed followed the administration’s policy, which requires the government to first make all reasonable attempts to obtain information from other sources. What specific actions did you take before you signed the subpoenas?” Wyden asked.

“I can tell you that in all of these cases, we — and not just one person — and this is the way I operate, I operate by asking my team, ‘What do you think?’ Any action in this regard, you can be assured that it was a consultative exercise with the career prosecutors in my office,” Clayton said.

Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) pressed further on the subpoenas, asking Clayton whether he talked to the Trump administration before issuing them.

“I can say it this way without getting into the investigation, the protocols require consultation with the Department of Justice in Washington, and we follow the protocols,” Clayton said.

Clayton is a lawyer who has been the U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York since 2025, where he has secured indictments for high-profile foreign and domestic defendants including former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and two men who allegedly attempted a terrorist attack on the New York mayoral residence in March.

Though he faced tough questions on Wednesday, his nomination last month drew praise from several Democrats.

Clayton was scheduled to appear for a confirmation hearing last month, but Trump scrapped the plan at the last minute over frustration with the Senate’s inability to advance his long-sought voter ID bill.

Clayton’s new job, if confirmed, will be to oversee the 17 intelligence agencies across the federal government. The office of the director was created after 9/11 to ensure there’s intelligence sharing between different agencies.

The committee will vote on the nomination early next week, and if approved, it will go to the full Senate for a vote.

Tags

Angus King

Bill Pulte

Jay Clayton

Joe Biden

Jon Ossoff

Mark Kelly

Mark Warner

Michael Bennet

Nicolas Maduro

Ron Wyden

Tom Cotton

Tulsi Gabbard

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.