The US Senate officially confirmed Jay Clayton to the post of Director of National Intelligence (DNI), BTA (bta.bg) reports in a current summary at 4:20 Bulgarian time. The upper house of the US parliament approved the nomination of President Donald Trump in a vote strictly along party lines - 51 votes "for" to 47 "against". Clayton, a former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and current federal prosecutor in New York, takes over the leadership of the 18 intelligence agencies in the country.
The decision ends the controversial leadership of acting Bill Pultey. Pultey took over the post temporarily after Tulsi Gabbard resigned in May, and his tenure was marked by serious cuts of nearly 30% of the department's staff. Republicans had hoped to confirm Clayton last month, but the White House deliberately delayed the process to keep Pulti in charge for a few extra weeks.
A key challenge for the new intelligence director will be to restore dialogue with Congress on key issues, including the renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which expired in June. The warrantless electronic surveillance program was blocked by Democrats precisely in protest of the interim leadership's actions.
Jay Clayton's hearings before the Senate Intelligence Committee were also tense. The opposition expressed strong reservations after Clayton refused to categorically confirm that Joe Biden had won the 2020 election, stating only that the results then were "certified". Despite criticism and accusations of a lack of direct intelligence experience, the Senate majority gave the green light for his appointment.