The Senate Intelligence Committee approved Jay Clayton on Tuesday as President Trump’s pick to oversee the U.S. intelligence community, clearing a key hurdle that may install Mr. Clayton in the job by the end of the week despite evaporating support from Democrats.
The vote, 9 to 8, fell along party lines, as every Republican on the panel backed Mr. Clayton while every Democrat voted in opposition.
Assuming he is confirmed by the full Senate as expected, Mr. Clayton will take command of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence from Bill Pulte, a housing official who has pursued campaigns of retribution against the president’s perceived enemies.
Mr. Clayton had been seen by some Democratic lawmakers as a palatable offering compared with Mr. Pulte, whom they excoriated as a Trump loyalist lacking national security experience. Weeks ago, Democrats and Republicans were working in tandem to quickly hold a hearing and secure a vote to confirm Mr. Clayton to the post in order to prevent Mr. Pulte from taking the job even briefly.
But Mr. Trump abruptly delayed the confirmation proceedings, ordering Mr. Clayton not to appear at the initial hearing. The move allowed Mr. Pulte to take over from Tulsi Gabbard in the position of acting director.
During his short tenure atop the agency, Mr. Pulte oversaw staffing cuts and worked with others to declassify documents related to the 2020 election. But he has so far not fired as many people as Democrats had initially feared, and the documents the White House released last week concerning foreign election meddling were in many instances information that had already been made public.
Democratic senators were disappointed with Mr. Clayton’s performance in his confirmation hearing last week, finding his evasive answers about whether President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had won the 2020 election unsatisfying. Mr. Clayton, who serves as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said that Mr. Biden had been “certified” as the winner — a sort of standard answer for Trump administration nominees — but declined to more explicitly say that he was the rightful winner.
Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, the Republican chairman of the Intelligence Committee, praised Mr. Clayton as a qualified nominee with “deep experience combating a wide range of national security threats.”
In Mr. Clayton’s U.S. attorney role, his office also issued subpoenas this month to several New York Times journalists who had recently published articles disclosing security concerns about Mr. Trump’s new Qatari-donated Air Force One jet.
At his hearing, Mr. Clayton offered few specifics about the matter, saying the subpoenas were part of “an ongoing national security investigation.” He said that the U.S. attorney’s office had consulted with the Justice Department in Washington, and that he had followed “procedures that we have in place to protect the First Amendment, and protect the freedom of the press, and not result in intimidation of journalists.”
Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who sits on the panel, pointed to both the subpoenas and Mr. Clayton’s answers about the 2020 vote as reasons for his opposition. Citing legal motions by The Times, Mr. Wyden said there were “credible allegations that he provided false testimony to the committee during his hearing about intimidation subpoenas sent about New York Times reporting.”
A motion by lawyers for The Times unsealed on Monday disclosed that the Justice Department had sought phone records from the reporters, as well as some of their family members. The motion noted that the highly aggressive moves called into question the accuracy of Mr. Clayton’s testimony, when he said his office had followed procedures meant to protect press freedom.
Instead, Mr. Wyden argued, the department appeared to have “repeatedly violated its own regulations in issuing its subpoenas” under Mr. Clayton’s watch.
