WASHINGTON — Just as Republican senators thought they had a plan to confirm a qualified nominee to lead U.S. spy agencies and extend a crucial surveillance law, President Donald Trump blew it all up — a move that will ensure a loyalist with a history of targeting the president's political enemies takes charge of the nation's sprawling intelligence apparatus.
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Trump announced on his website he was canceling a Senate hearing to consider Jay Clayton, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, for director of national intelligence, and demanding senators add unrelated restrictions on voting to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, even though the Senate has repeatedly rejected the voting changes. “In the meantime,” Trump wrote, “Bill Pulte will remain as the Acting Director of National Intelligence.”
The announcement stunned senators. “It is absolutely insane,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told HuffPost. “There's no way to analyze it rationally, except to say, you know, maybe he's suffering from sleep deprivation or time zone disorientation.”
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said it appears Trump considers it far more important to have a lackey as DNI than it is to extend spying powers hawkish senators in both parties consider essential to stopping terrorist attacks. “I think he wants [Pulte] to wreak havoc,” Warner told HuffPost, adding Pulte “couldn't even keep mortgage information private.”
“Anybody who doesn't think that is a national security risk doesn't understand the importance of our intelligence,” he added.
Trump tapped Pulte to take over as acting director this month after the current director, Tulsi Gabbard, announced she would step aside. As leader of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Pulte has used agency records to refer Trump's political opponents for criminal prosecution over bogus mortgage fraud allegations. He's supposed to start at DNI on Friday. Trump picked Pulte as Gabbard's temporary successor just as the Senate was in the middle of extending FISA, a controversial spy law that allows domestic law enforcement agencies to sift through the intercepted communications of American citizens. Democrats refused to vote for the law because of Pulte, and it has now lapsed, with lawmakers claiming the U.S. is now more vulnerable to terrorist attacks as a result.
Democrats and Republicans alike begged Trump to pick someone else, and last week Trump tapped Clayton, a loyal Republican nevertheless seen as far more qualified and a nominee with a plausible path toward a speedy bipartisan confirmation that would prevent Pulte from ever taking charge. But Trump on Wednesday claimed the Senate needs to confirm a replacement for Clayton as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York before he can take over for Pulte.
On top of that, Trump wrote he would like “to add a slight bit of intrigue” and also insist on new voter ID rules as part of an extension of Section 702 of FISA. Congress created the Director of National Intelligence position after the 2001 terrorist attacks, with the law stating anyone nominated or appointed to the job “shall have extensive national security expertise.” Pulte has no national security experience, while Clayton has overseen terrorist prosecutions.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), the chair of the intelligence committee, called it “regrettable” Trump directed Clayton not to appear at a scheduled hearing on Wednesday. “Mr. Clayton is a patriot and a highly qualified nominee, as the president has said repeatedly,” Cotton wrote on X. “While today's hearing is now unfortunately postponed, I look forward to proceeding with his confirmation in the near future.”
Trump has seemingly lost patience with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), as Thune has not delivered on voting restrictions or funding for Trump's ballroom. It's possible comments Thune made Tuesday on Fox News, explaining there weren't enough votes to pass the SAVE America Act, the law that would require new voter ID rules and clamp down on mail ballots, irritated the president. “There are times when, for reasons of how the Senate functions, the answer isn't always yes to the things that he wants to do,” Thune said. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
