In Donald Trump’s chaotic second term, Jay Clayton is emerging as one of the few people the president turns to when he’s in a pickle.
Clayton is set to go from Wall Street power lawyer to top prosecutor and now a spy-master as Trump’s new pick for director of national intelligence. The president is trying to end the furor sparked by his attempt to install housing regulator and loyalist Bill Pulte to that role overseeing US intelligence agencies.
“He’s an adult in the room,” said Rich Farley, a prominent corporate lawyer. “Jay Clayton is Trump’s Michael Clayton,” he said, referencing the movie in which George Clooney plays a low-key fixer who cleans up messes.
Trump announced Clayton’s selection on Thursday. If he wins Senate confirmation, he would leave his current job overseeing the storied Manhattan US Attorney’s Office. He’s spent the past year smoothing things over after senior members of Trump’s second administration clashed with prosecutors there, drawing accusations of political interference.
But his new role would be the biggest management test yet for the man Apollo Global Management once tapped to turn the page on its Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
Read More: Apollo’s Mr. Fix-It Is Now Trump’s Pick to Police Wall Street
Political Flashpoint
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence was set-up after the September 2001 terrorist attacks to sit atop more than a dozen agencies and ensure coordination between them. But under outgoing leader Tulsi Gabbard the agency became a political flashpoint.
Her skepticism of American involvement in overseas wars left her increasingly out of step with the administration, and she took a back seat to CIA Director John Ratcliffe. At the same time, Trump tapped Gabbard to work on US election security in a move that the president’s critics cast as a bid to influence future elections.
The Senate Intelligence Committee plans to hold a public hearing on Clayton’s nomination next week, in a very quick turnaround. Senate Majority Leader John Thune expressed confidence that Clayton could be approved by the Senate quickly, as he had been through the confirmation process for other posts.
A spokesperson for SDNY said Clayton would remain in the US attorney post through the confirmation process.
If he is approved, the question is whether Clayton would continue the office’s focus on election mechanics or pivot to more traditional intelligence matters while staking out a bigger profile in the administration. He regularly appears on television, something that Trump values highly, and they golf together.
In his regular spot on CNBC this week, Clayton suggested the opportunity for fraud in American elections was a problem. Trump has zeroed in on the issue to cast doubt over recent voting in California.
‘Gray Zone’
Gary Cohn, the former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. president who joined Trump’s first White House, said Clayton has shown he can untangle the policy from theatrical politics.
“In the world of the Trump administration there is a gray zone,” Cohn said. “Policies are good and the delivery can be confusing.”
Clayton has been able to straddle Wall Street’s staid corridors of power and Trump’s orbit without antagonizing the president.
When morale was at an all-time low in the Manhattan US attorney outpost, he spoke about leveraging his relationships in Washington for the good of the office and hosted rookie prosecutors and their families for bagels. Still, when prosecutor Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI director and Trump adversary James Comey, was abruptly fired by officials in Washington, Clayton’s inability or lack of desire to intervene rattled some of the rank and file.
Read More: Ex-FBI Chief Comey’s Daughter Ousted as Federal Prosecutor
Clayton led the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump’s first term, then returned last year as a prosecutor, when many other former top officials didn’t come back.
“It will be very helpful in his new role that the president has confidence in him,” said Steven Mnuchin, who served as Treasury secretary in the first term, outlasting many other Cabinet officials to remain until the administration’s final day.
Pulte’s selection had stunned Washington in part because he had used his perch as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency to launch investigations into perceived political adversaries of the president.
Like Pulte, Clayton lacks military or intelligence experience for a role that would have him overseeing the nation’s myriad spy agencies. But Clayton’s record in public service is likely to assuage some lawmakers who took issue with Pulte.
‘No Schmutz’
Clayton has also managed to avoid the political controversies that have tainted other US attorneys who oversaw indictments against Trump’s perceived adversaries.
At the SDNY, he served up the kinds of violent crime, immigration and national security terrorism cases the administration valued — the indictments of former Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro and a Mexican governor in cases alleging drug cartel ties — with a smattering of big white collar cases in between.
Yet despite being in the job only for a year — many US attorneys stay for an entire presidential term — Clayton has at times privately expressed openness to something new, such as a more prominent position in Washington, perhaps in the Cabinet, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private conversations.
Clayton spent the Biden administration at Sullivan & Cromwell and serving as Apollo’s chair and lead independent director. After Trump’s reelection in 2024, Clayton auditioned for the role of US attorney general, according to people familiar with the process who also asked not to be identified discussing internal dynamics, and was also interested in serving as CIA director or Treasury secretary.
“He feels like he accomplished a lot of what he set out to accomplish at this point at SDNY,” said Steven Peikin, who worked with Clayton at the SEC and Sullivan & Cromwell. And the intelligence post “is a role where it appears the president wants a high-quality person.”
Now, if confirmed, Clayton will be back at the center of things at the White House.
“We are all fortunate he’s there,” said Bob Steel, the Wall Street financier and alum of the George W. Bush administration. “Jay has no schmutz on his shoes.”