By Patricia Zengerle, Jonathan Landay and Luc Cohen
WASHINGTON, July 15 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the top U.S. spy, Jay Clayton, appeared at his delayed confirmation hearing on Wednesday, and lawmakers said they planned to grill him about his recent subpoenas of New York Times journalists in his current role as the leading U.S. attorney for Manhattan.
The Republican president cast doubt on Clayton’s confirmation as Director of National Intelligence last month by ordering the abrupt postponement of his Senate Intelligence Committee hearing in an effort to force Congress to pass a strict voter identification bill.
Known as the SAVE Act, the voting measure remains stalled in Congress, where it lacks the support needed to pass the Senate. While the administration has said the legislation is needed to protect election security, voting rights groups say it would disenfranchise millions of Americans who lack ready access to passports and birth certificates.
Before Trump’s action, Democrats had seemed amenable to confirming Clayton, hoping to quickly replace the acting DNI, Bill Pulte, a close Trump ally who previously was director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and lacked national security experience. Pulte replaced Tulsi Gabbard, who resigned from her job in May.
At Wednesday’s Senate hearing, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, the panel’s chairman, said he intended to hold a meeting early next week to vote on Clayton’s nomination and send it for consideration by the full Senate.
Lawmakers said they were concerned after Clayton issued subpoenas on Friday ordering New York Times journalists to testify before a federal grand jury after reporting on security concerns involving Trump’s new Qatari-donated Air Force One.
The newspaper described the move as “an extraordinary escalation” in Trump’s efforts to intimidate journalists, a view echoed by some senators. The Justice Department said it was not aimed at journalists but at officials leaking sensitive information.
At the hearing, Clayton said the subpoenas were “in connection with an ongoing national security investigation,” and said their issue was part of a “consultative process” with career prosecutors in his office.
“I’m absolutely committed to and respect our First Amendment and the role of the press,” Clayton said.
He said he did not want to discuss the case in detail.
POLITICIZED INTELLIGENCE
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the committee’s senior Democrat, called on Clayton to refrain from what Warner charged were “repeated attempts” to politicize intelligence by former DNI Gabbard and acting DNI Pulte.
Warner said one of his greatest concerns was how Pulte might misuse intelligence about U.S. elections based on extremely sensitive sources that he reportedly plans to declassify for a nationwide address Trump is scheduled to deliver on Thursday.
“I just don’t understand how Mr. Pulte … can end up figuring out what is appropriate or not appropriate (to declassify) since he’s been in the job for only three weeks,” Warner said.
Clayton said he was not involved in preparation for Trump’s announcement on Thursday.
Clayton does not have extensive traditional intelligence agency experience, but said he has worked on security while chairing the Securities and Exchange Commission and as Manhattan U.S. attorney, a position in which he has been handling the prosecution of deposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
“National security and market function and market integrity are synonymous,” Clayton said. He said that he has prosecuted foreign terrorist organizations, addressing counterespionage, money laundering and bribery.
Congressional Democrats — and some Republicans — are eager to move Pulte out of the DNI role, which oversees the 18 U.S. intelligence agencies and has access to the nation’s most sensitive secrets.
Skeptical lawmakers from both parties have expressed concern about Pulte’s lack of intelligence experience and reputation for “weaponizing” his power within the government against Trump’s perceived political foes. Republicans in Congress typically back Trump nominees nearly unanimously.
Since assuming his acting position last month, Pulte has announced repeated rounds of staff reductions.
Clayton, pushing back on conservative “small-government” Republicans for advocating for the elimination of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said there was a need for a “focal point for coordination across the other 17 intelligence agencies.” But he added that ODNI should “probably pull back” from its involvement in operations and from functions performed by other intelligence agencies.
Lawmakers also hope the removal of Pulte as acting spy chief and confirmation of Clayton would help lead to the renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, which allows law enforcement to collect foreign intelligence without judicial authorization.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Don Durfee, Edmund Klamann, Philippa Fletcher)
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