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President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the nation’s intelligence agencies appeared in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday for a relatively smooth hearing that quickly turned explosive just before it ended.
U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, who currently serves in the Southern District of New York, was tapped by Trump to be the permanent nominee as the director of national intelligence (ODNI) after former DNI Tulsi Gabbard stepped down from the role last month.
During the hearing, he was grilled by several Democratic senators to confirm who won the 2020 election, after what they view as former DNI Tulsi Gabbard and her interim replacement, Bill Pulte, seemingly questioning the results, as Trump has done before.
Most of the senators accepted Clayton’s response — that former President Joe Biden received the most Electoral College votes and the election was certified constitutionally. But upstart Senator Jon Ossoff, D-Ga, the last committee member to ask Clayton questions, would not let the issue go.
“Who won the 2020 election?” Ossoff asked.
“You know, we’re not — I’m not — I’m not going to do this with you,” Clayton replied.
“This is a job interview. We’ve established that you have an obligation to be honest and forthright with the committee,” said Ossoff. “You do have an obligation to be honest and forthright with the committee. Who won the 2020 election?”
Jay Clayton, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), during the Bloomberg Global Credit Forum in New York, US, on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Like I said, I’m not I’m not going to get into that with you,’ said Clayton.
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“But you do have an obligation to be honest and forthright with the committee,” said Ossoff.
“Is anything that I just said not honest or forthright?” asked Clayton.
“You’re not being honest or forthright, Ossoff insisted. “Who won the 2020 election?”
“We can keep doing this,” said Clayton.
“Well, we’re going to keep doing it because you’re not being honest and forthright,” said Ossoff.
“I’m not going to engage in the theater,” replied Clayton.
Ossoff then continued to ask who won the election, and Clayton continued to say that he had already answered the question.
After that exchange, Ossoff pressed Clayton on whether he knew that Gabbard observed an FBI raid of a Fulton County, Georgia election warehouse in January. When Clayton replied that Ossoff had made him aware of that during a meeting in Ossoff’s office Tuesday, the answer wasn’t satisfactory to the Senator. The pair engaged in another heated volley over that issue, until Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., banged his gavel, shouting at Ossoff that his time was up.
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Prime Minister of Iraq Ali al-Zaidi in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on July 14, 2026. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
“Jay Clayton is a patriot and highly qualified nominee,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said on X.
“In his service to the people of New York, Mr. Clayton has deep experience combatting a wide range of national security threats,” he continued. “I look forward to his hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee tomorrow.”
But Clayton, who served as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) during Trump’s first term, was caught in a political firestorm roiling through the Senate last month that he had no part of.
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And if he survives the process — several Democrats still serving in the Senate voted to confirm him as SEC chair — lawmakers are hopeful that it will again set up a path to turn a key counter-terrorism tool back on.
Democrats were enraged at Trump for tapping Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte to be the acting DNI, arguing that he was unqualified and could weaponize the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies at Trump’s bidding.
“Why is Mr. Pulte being promoted? Beyond the fact that just the kind of outright insult to the intelligence community, that he can suddenly do the mortgage banking job and the intelligence job at the same time, it’s absurd,” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said at the time.
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Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Bill Pulte walks outside the White House, Sept. 2, 2025, in Washington. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo)
In return, they refused to support reauthorization of the nation’s top counter-terrorism tool, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), causing the program to gradually go dark.
Clayton’s nomination was seen by Democrats as an olive branch from the administration designed to ensure that Pulte would never get into the DNI role, and that consideration of a FISA reauthorization could restart.
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Trump later argued that Democrats “broke the deal” with FISA, and that until Clayton’s replacement as U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, James McDonald, was confirmed, the nomination would not go forward. And to “add a slight bit of intrigue,” Trump demanded that Republicans tie the SAVE America Act to FISA.
“Not complicated, actually, the Republicans fell into a trap,” Trump said at the time.
