The Senate confirmed Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, on Tuesday to oversee the nation’s intelligence agencies, installing a longtime ally of the president into a top national security post that has waned in significance during the second Trump administration.
The vote, 51 to 47, was along party lines. Though his nomination was initially met with some good will from Democrats, Mr. Clayton shed that bipartisan support during his confirmation hearing this month after he refused to clearly state that Joseph R. Biden Jr. had won the 2020 presidential election.
Though Democrats opposed Mr. Clayton, some have privately expressed relief that he will take the reins of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence from Bill Pulte, a housing official who has pursued campaigns of retribution against President Trump’s perceived enemies.
Still, in a statement after the vote, Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, voiced some skepticism about Mr. Clayton, despite their longstanding relationship.
“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,” said Mr. Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. “Now that he has been confirmed, I sincerely hope he proves those concerns unfounded, because the intelligence community deserves steadier leadership than it has received in recent months.”
In serving as the acting director, Mr. Pulte has downsized the spy office, making gleeful pronouncements of his moves on social media. On Tuesday morning, Mr. Pulte claimed on X that he had just executed a “5th and Near Final Round of TERMINATIONS” that totaled a 30 percent staff reduction during his short tenure, though current and former officials said it was unclear whether many of those cuts had actually taken place.
Weeks ago, Democrats and Republicans were working in tandem to quickly confirm Mr. Clayton to the post to prevent Mr. Pulte from taking the job even briefly, as some lawmakers feared he could engineer irreversible damage to the intelligence community. But that plan fell apart when Mr. Trump did not allow Mr. Clayton to appear for a confirmation hearing as he sought to pressure lawmakers to pass a voting restriction measure, leading to Mr. Pulte’s weekslong stint.
Democrats and some Republicans viewed Mr. Pulte, who lacked any national security experience, as ill-suited for the job, and many were eager to see Mr. Clayton, who served as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission during Mr. Trump’s first term, succeed him.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence was created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and was intended to facilitate better intelligence coordination among spy agencies. Its influence has varied considerably since its inception, changing with each White House occupant and reaching a nadir during the current Trump administration.
Mr. Trump has leaned heavily on the C.I.A. director, John Ratcliffe, on key national security decisions, including a raid in January in Venezuela and the war with Iran. He has turned to the office instead to selectively declassify documents and nurse his longstanding grievances against the “deep state” he has accused of trying to undermine him.
Mr. Ratcliffe recommended Mr. Clayton for the spy chief job to Mr. Trump, according to people familiar with the matter, and the two are expected to be more aligned on issues than were Mr. Ratcliffe and Tulsi Gabbard, who announced in May she was stepping down from the post after her husband was diagnosed with cancer.
During his short tenure atop the agency, Mr. Pulte oversaw staffing cuts and helped declassify documents related to the 2020 election. But he has not fired as many people as Democrats had initially feared, and documents the White House released this month concerning foreign election meddling were in many instances information that had already been made public.
Though seen as a far more favorable option relative to Mr. Pulte, Democratic senators soured on Mr. Clayton when he supplied evasive answers about whether Mr. Biden had won the 2020 election. In heated exchanges with Senator Jon Ossoff, a Georgia Democrat who has drawn mentions as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, Mr. Clayton said that Mr. Biden had been “certified” as the winner but declined to more explicitly declare he was the rightful winner.
But unlike in the case of Ms. Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman whom some Republicans struggled to warm up to, Mr. Clayton’s confirmation was never in doubt despite his testimony.
In Mr. Clayton’s U.S. attorney role, his office also issued subpoenas this month to several New York Times journalists who had recently published articles disclosing security concerns about Mr. Trump’s new Qatari-donated Air Force One jet. The Justice Department withdrew those subpoenas last week.
Robert Jimison contributed reporting.
