Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the new director of the country’s national intelligence agency, which oversees the U.S.’s spy operations.
Clayton, whom President Trump nominated to the post, had been the top prosecutor since April 2025 for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), one of the country’s most high-profile and important Department of Justice offices. He called his time in the role an immense privilege.
“Working with the women and men of the SDNY and our partners on behalf of New York families and all Americans to keep them safe from harm, protect their freedoms, and improve their quality of life, has been an immense privilege,” Clayton said in a parting statement.
Trump tapped Clayton, a longtime ally, to lead the agency in June after Tulsi Gabbard stepped down from the post in May. The president posted a message commending Clayton’s confirmation to Truth Social after the U.S. Senate vote.
“Congratulations to the Great Jay Clayton on his confirmation by the United States Senate, to be the next Director of National Intelligence,” Trump wrote after Clayton had been confirmed by a 51-47 vote along party lines. “Jay is outstanding in every way, and will do a spectacular job as Director!”
Who’s replacing Jay Clayton at the SDNY?
Trump’s pick to replace Clayton as the U.S. attorney in Manhattan is James McDonald, a current Sullivan & Cromwell partner, a white-collar corporate law firm where Clayton also previously worked.
McDonald who previously served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, an enforcement director at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a deputy associate counsel in the White House under President George W. Bush, and as a law clerk to Chief Justice John Roberts on the U.S. Supreme Court and Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton Jr., on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
“Mr. McDonald, an alumnus of the Office, is a remarkably accomplished, highly respected, and widely sought after counselor, strategist, and advocate, inside and outside the courtroom,” Clayton said in a statement earlier this month.
In Clayton’s short time heading the office since April 2025, he oversaw the sex trafficking conviction of three New York City real estate brokers known as the Alexander Brothers, some preparation of the case against accused UnitedHealthCare CEO murderer Luigi Mangione, the release of millions of pages of the Epstein files and the prosecution of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
His stated priorities for the U.S. attorney’s office included cracking down on street crime, like gun and fentanyl offenses, an unusual aim for the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office that’s historically been focused on high-level prosecution, as well as sex trafficking.
Though some lawmakers raised concerns against Clayton’s nomination – namely, his refusal to state Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election and issuing subpoenas against New York Times journalists who reported on security concerns regarding Qatar gifting Trump a new Air Force One plane – he was a much less eyebrow-raising figure than Trump’s initial pick for the seat, Bill Pute, a controversial Trump ally who currently serves as the director of federal housing and had no known national intelligence experience.
