All posts tagged "Jay Clayton"

The nation's top spy has sent Secretary of State Marco Rubio an urgent warning that danger to Americans overseas is rapidly escalating.

Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton told Rubio that Iran has "substantially increased" its efforts to go after U.S. personnel, such as diplomats, and that lethal plotting against American citizens has reached "advanced stages" in the Middle East and other countries, according to an Oct. 23 memo Axios obtained and reported on Friday.

"The lethal plotting efforts by the Iranians against U.S. citizens have reached advanced stages in both the Middle East and certain other countries," Clayton wrote in the one-page, unclassified memo, which was also copied to CIA Director John Ratcliffe....

Democratic lawmakers were furious after the Senate voted to confirm President Donald Trump's nominee Jay Clayton as the new Director of National Intelligence on Tuesday.

Following a party-line 51-47 vote, the Senate approved Clayton to be the nation's top spy chief. Trump picked Clayton to be the permanent DNI following former DNI Tulsi Gabbard announcing her resignation in May. After her exit in June, Acting DNI Bill Pulte was appointed by the president to serve in the interim role.

After the vote, Senate Democrats took a stance and made their positions known on social media. ...

A security expert warned that the confirmation of Trump's new spy chief marks a "really alarming moment."

During an appearance on CNN, Paul Rieckhoff said that the confirmation of Jay Clayton as Director of National Intelligence shows that Trump rewards loyalty above all else. Rieckhoff made the warning as CNN panelists spoke about Trump threatening upcoming elections and as Senate votes came in to confirm Clayton as the new head of America's 18 intelligence agencies.

"Standards don't matter. Competency doesn't matter. Independence doesn't matter. Loyalty matters," Rieckhoff said. "This is a really alarming moment that we shouldn't normalize."...

The outgoing director of national intelligence spent his last days on the job bragging about unproven firings, per the New York Times.

Bill Pulte, the acting director of national intelligence, is expected to be replaced on Tuesday by Jay Clayton after a short-lived stint as President Donald Trump's spy chief. During his last days and hours on the job, Pulte bragged that he reduced staff at the office of the director of national intelligence (ODNI), a claim ex-officials doubt, according to reporting by the Times.

The Times noted a "flurry of social media posts" by Pulte. In a Tuesday post on X, he wrote, "We are, this morning, Executing a 5th and near final round of Terminations, an approximately 30 percent Staff Reduction from Weeks ago."...

A GOP strategist slammed Trump's pick for national intelligence director and his recent performance at a confirmation hearing.

While speaking on a panel with CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins and senior legal analyst Elie Honig, GOP strategist Douglas Heye evaluated one of the comments made by Jay Clayton during his confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

When asked why former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard attended an FBI raid that seized voting records in Georgia, Clayton admitted that the question "just wasn't something that was on my mind before the preparation for this hearing."...

An analyst on Wednesday described a significant moment at the Senate confirmation hearing for President Donald Trump's Director of National Intelligence nominee, Jay Clayton.

CNN correspondent Brian Todd told CNN anchor Jake Tapper about Clayton's refusal to answer questions about who won the 2020 election and his response to former DNI Tulsi Gabbard at the FBI raids at the Fulton County election offices.

"They pressed him, Jake, on Tulsi Gabbard's visit to Georgia this past January that was just so controversial, widely reported," Todd said. "But in a pretty extraordinary exchange, Jay Clayton claimed to know little or nothing about that trip."...