IC Oversight & Policy — 2026-07-12

Senate Intelligence Committee Schedules Jay Clayton DNI Confirmation Hearing for July 15

BLUFClayton's confirmation as DNI is likely by mid-September, ending a dual-hatting arrangement that has left intelligence community leadership as a secondary duty for weeks.

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has scheduled an open confirmation hearing for Jay Clayton, President Trump's nominee for director of national intelligence, for Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. 12. UPI reports the committee rescheduled the hearing after Trump canceled the original session roughly a month earlier amid a dispute with Congress over his proposed SAVE America Act voter ID legislation 3. Clayton, currently U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and a former SEC chair, would replace William Pulte, who has served as acting DNI since Tulsi Gabbard left the post in early June while also holding his posts as Federal Housing Finance Agency director and Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac chairman 3. James McDonald, a Sullivan & Cromwell partner identified by UPI as Trump's personal lawyer, is running Clayton's 200-lawyer U.S. Attorney's office as deputy and will separately require Senate confirmation to succeed Clayton in that post 23.

Analysis
Committee action revives a confirmation track Trump himself froze, and a hearing set for Wednesday returns DNI leadership to Senate control rather than the acting-director arrangement in place since Gabbard's departure. Confirmation likely follows within weeks once the hearing proceeds, given committee scheduling authority and no signal of renewed White House objection to Clayton specifically. Moderate confidence reflects a single institutional notice confirmed by wire reporting but no independent read on committee members' private posture toward the nominee. Pulte's dual role atop FHFA and the GSEs alongside acting DNI duties remains the status quo until a vote occurs, and McDonald's parallel confirmation need at SDNY ties the two personnel tracks together procedurally.
3 sources
  1. Open Hearing: Nomination for the Honorable Walter "Jay" Clayton III to be Director of National Intelligence - Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
  2. Senate panel to hold hearing to confirm director of national intelligence - JNS
  3. Senate panel schedules confirmation hearing for DNI nominee Jay Clayton - UPI

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