Republicans want Trump spy nominee confirmed now but Democrats hesitate

By Patricia Zengerle and Erin Banco

WASHINGTON, June 17 (Reuters) – Republicans are pushing for swift Senate confirmation of President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead U.S. intelligence, Jay Clayton, but Democrats said they would wait until his nomination hearing on Wednesday before deciding how to proceed. 

Trump nominated Clayton, the top U.S. attorney for Manhattan, to be Director of National Intelligence (DNI) less than a week ago, amid a political firestorm over the loyalist he had picked to fill the role temporarily.

That close ally, Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte, has no national security experience. Even some Republicans expressed concerns that he could “weaponize” top-secret intelligence to target Trump’s perceived political foes.

Trump’s decision to pick Clayton to oversee the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies was greeted with relief. Clayton lacks extensive national security experience but is broadly respected by Democrats and Republicans.

Democrats said on Tuesday that they intended to question Clayton closely, but held off on passing judgment before his Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.

“I favor a full vetting… a thorough examination of all of the issues,” Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, a senior Democratic member of the panel, told reporters.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Democrats would decide how to proceed only after the hearing. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota and other Republicans want Democrats to agree to waive Senate rules to allow a vote on Clayton as soon as this week.

Thune told a news conference on Tuesday that Clayton is “eminently qualified” and that his position as U.S. attorney meant that he deals with intelligence matters.

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His quick confirmation could also help pave the way for the renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows law enforcement to collect foreign intelligence that can include information about Americans without judicial authorization.

Democrats had said they would withhold the votes to renew Section 702 while Pulte was acting DNI.

“It needs to be fixed quickly, and I hope that the Democrats will work with us in order to make that happen,” Thune said.

Clayton currently serves as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, one of the most coveted positions for prosecutors in the Justice Department. His office is overseeing the case against former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was seized in a lightning raid on January 3.

Clayton could face questions about Maduro at the hearing, as well as his decision to falsely claim on television shortly before his nomination that there may have been fraud in the counting of votes in the Los Angeles mayoral race.

Vote counts are often delayed in California because mail-in ballots can be postmarked by Election Day but received up to seven days later.

Trump has recently repeated similar claims about the election and recycled unproven claims that the 2020 presidential race was stolen from him, which Democrats warn could be a sign he will seek to interfere in future elections.

It is still unclear if Pulte, the federal housing regulator, will spend any time as interim director after Tulsi Gabbard’s last day, June 19. Gabbard, a former Democrat without deep intelligence experience, was accused by Democrats of using her post to advance Trump’s drive to retaliate against his perceived enemies and push debunked election fraud claims.

Clayton also is likely to be closely questioned about plans to sharply cut staffing of the DNI’s office, or even eliminate it completely.

Trump had said that he wanted Pulte to make cuts during his time as interim director.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Erin Banco; Additional reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Don Durfee and Sanjeev Miglani)