Trump delays Jay Clayton’s nomination for intel director, citing frustration over spying tool and voter ID bill – NBC News
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President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he was delaying Jay Clayton’s nomination to lead the U.S. intelligence community, citing his frustration over a lapsed surveillance tool and a voter ID bill that currently lacks enough support for passage.
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In a lengthy overnight post to Truth Social, Trump said that he was canceling a confirmation hearing for Clayton to be his director of national intelligence, which was planned for Wednesday. He issued the post while keeping world leaders waiting for nearly an hour on the final day of the Group of Seven summit in Evian-les-Bains, France.
Trump accused Democrats of reneging on a deal to renew a powerful surveillance tool backed by national security hawks, which had lapsed due to bipartisan concerns over Trump’s initial pick for the role, Bill Pulte, who has no national security background.
The president added another condition: linking his approval of the surveillance program to the passage of a bill requiring people to provide proof of citizenship to register to vote and to show ID at the polls.
Trump also said he does not want to take Clayton out of his current role as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York before his replacement, former federal prosecutor and Trump personal lawyer Jamie McDonald, is approved.
The nomination of Clayton had been fast-tracked because of the lapse of the key spying program — Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA.
“The Republicans agreed with Dumocrats to remove very fair, and talented, William Pulte, from serving as Acting DNI in return for getting FISA approved by the Dumocrats. However, the Republicans moved so fast with the hearings of the Great Jay Clayton, current U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, that Pulte would be gone before the Dumocrats would vote on FISA. Now, the Dumocrats are saying they will vote against FISA — So, the Republicans wound up having fulfilled their commitment, but Dumocrats broke the Deal,” Trump said.
“Therefore, to add a slight bit of intrigue but, for the Good of the Nation, and the People of our Country, I will not approve FISA without THE SAVE AMERICA ACT going along with it,” Trump said, using the acronym for the surveillance program and his name for the voter ID bill.
He said he would not be going forward with Clayton’s confirmation hearing until McDonald is approved to be U.S. Attorney. Pulte will remain acting intelligence director in the meantime, Trump said.
The Republican-controlled Congress has not acted on the voting bill because it does not have enough support in either chamber, particularly from Democrats.
FISA gives the administration powers to spy on foreign nationals living abroad without obtaining warrants. The program has long faced criticism from privacy hawks on the left and the right who say that it enables the government to sweep up data on Americans and that it is ripe for abuse.
Trump’s post suggested that debate to revive Section 702 could be indefinitely postponed. Lawmakers have sounded the alarm about the government operating without congressional authorization of the powerful spy tool.
A court order from last March certified that the program could continue for another 12 months, though it’s possible that communications companies could challenge the government’s authority to force them to cooperate and share data.
Any bill to renew it needs 60 votes in the Senate, where Republicans control 53 seats.
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Trump’s tapping Pulte for DNI had made it “much harder” to reach a bipartisan agreement. He and other Democratic lawmakers have raised concerns that Pulte, a close Trump ally who has unsuccessfully pursued mortgage fraud investigations into several prominent Democrats, would use his spy powers to continue targeting the president’s perceived political enemies if allowed to remain as intelligence chief.
Democratic lawmakers have said Trump’s instinct to install Pulte as acting DNI was reason enough to warrant opposition to renewing the warrantless surveillance power, and Democratic leaders have expressed support for Clayton.
Caroline Kenny is a White House producer for NBC News.
The Associated Press
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