美国总统唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)周四宣布了国家情报总监办公室(Director of National Intelligence)的永久人选，此前他的临时人选引发的轩然大波有可能破坏一项关键监控法的更新。
特朗普表示，他将提名现任纽约南区联邦检察官、前美国证券交易委员会主席杰伊·克莱顿(Jay Clayton)领导情报机构。
“我鼓励美国参议院尽快确认杰伊，”特朗普在一篇社交媒体帖子中写道。
特朗普宣布这一消息之前，众议院和参议院周四早些时候未能通过《外国情报监控法》第702条的延期，该法案将于周五结束时到期。
在Tulsi Gabbard宣布辞职后，特朗普选择Bill Pulte担任代理主任，这使得间谍计划的重新授权变得模糊不清。普尔特在国会山引起了两党对他缺乏国家安全和情报经验的关注。
美国广播公司新闻高级政治记者雷切尔·斯科特(Rachel Scott)周四问特朗普，鉴于他缺乏情报经验，普尔特是否继续担任代理主任。
“他只在那里呆了一会儿。特朗普在椭圆形办公室说:“他只经营了一小会儿，我们就有了一个非常有才华的人，杰伊·克莱顿。”。
除了他在担任纽约南区联邦检察官期间监管的国家安全案件外，克莱顿还缺乏情报收集和国家安全事务方面的经验。
克莱顿职业生涯的大部分时间是作为一名公司律师度过的，在去年被任命为联邦检察官之前，他在刑事案件方面缺乏有意义的经验。
去年，他一直在监督美国最受瞩目的联邦检察官办公室之一——专注于毒品、帮派、移民和欺诈案件——并被任命领导一项调查，该调查是川普直接要求对比尔·克林顿(Bill Clinton)、拉里·萨默斯(Larry Summers)和雷德·霍夫曼与爱泼斯坦(Epstein)的所谓关联等高调民主党人进行的。这项调查似乎没有任何结果，今年早些时候，代理司法部长托德·布兰奇说，司法部没有任何涉及爱普斯坦公司的积极案件。
克莱顿还监督了与爱泼斯坦有关的大陪审团材料的启封，促使受害者抱怨他们的敏感个人信息被泄露。司法部推动公开这些材料，导致对爱泼斯坦的调查几乎没有新的信息，并被法官批评为主要是表演性的努力，而DOJ拒绝公布他们自己的材料。
克莱顿的办公室首次对预测市场上的内幕交易提起了两起诉讼，包括针对一名特种部队士兵和一名谷歌员工的案件，这使他的办公室成为如何治理批评人士称内幕交易盛行的网站的辩论中心。
克莱顿从未被参议院确认为美国检察官，尽管他的提名得到了该地区联邦法官的批准，并被许多人视为领导这一高调职位的稳定之手。然而，本周早些时候，当他出现在美国消费者新闻与商业频道，对加州选举舞弊的毫无根据的指控发表意见时，他成为了批评的对象。
“有一个很好的短语，‘欺诈的机会’，”克莱顿说，批评该州的邮寄投票法。
克莱顿职业生涯的大部分时间都在沙利文&克伦威尔律师事务所(Sullivan&Cromwell)度过，在那里，他代表对冲基金、富有的投资者、大型银行和大型企业，如德意志银行、瑞银集团和阿里巴巴集团。克莱顿在2008年金融危机期间代表高盛，在巴克莱收购雷曼兄弟的资产时代表巴克莱。
在特朗普的第一个任期内，克莱顿领导了SEC，打击加密货币，赢得了140亿美元的货币补救措施，包括向投资者返还35亿美元。虽然克莱顿支持“主要街道投资者的长期利益”，但他也推动放松监管，如取消对冲基金公布股票头寸的要求，放松对公司审计员的规定，批评者称这削弱了对投资者的保护。
虽然克莱顿在美国证券交易委员会工作时通常会避开政治焦点，但2020年6月提名克莱顿担任纽约南区联邦检察官的提议短暂地导致了政治动荡。现任美国司法部长杰弗里·伯曼(Geoffrey Berman)拒绝在时任司法部长比尔·巴尔(Bill Barr)宣布克莱顿将接替他的职位后离职。随着伯曼的副手接手这一职位，僵局得以解决，克莱顿继续领导证交会。
Trump picks Jay Clayton for director of national intelligence after uproar over Pulte
President Donald Trump announced on Thursday a permanent pick to head the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, after the uproar over his temporary pick risked derailing the renewal of a key surveillance law.
Trump said that he is nominating the current U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton to head the intelligence agency.
"I encourage the United States Senate to confirm Jay as soon as possible," Trump wrote in a social media post.
Trump's announcement comes after both the House and Senate earlier Thursdayfailed to pass extensions of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which is set to expire at the end of the day Friday.
The reauthorization of the spy program was muddied by Trump's choiceof Bill Pulte to serve as acting director after Tulsi Gabbard announced her resignation. Pulte drew bipartisan concern on Capitol Hill over his lack of previous experience in national security and intelligence.
ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott asked Trump on Thursday about Pulte continuing to serve as acting director given his lack of intelligence experience.
"He's only there for alittle while. He'srunning it for a short while we geta very talentedperson, Jay Clayton, in," Trump said in the Oval Office.
Apart from the national security cases he oversaw while serving as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Clayton also lacks experience in intelligence gathering and national security matters.
Clayton spent the bulk of his career as a corporate attorney, and prior to his appointment as U.S. attorney last year, lacked meaningful experience in criminal matters.
He has spent the last year overseeing one of the country's highest profile federal prosecutor's offices -- focusing on drugs, gangs, immigration and fraud cases -- and was also tapped to lead an investigation that Trump directly called for into high-profile Democrats such Bill Clinton, Larry Summers and Reid Hoffman's alleged associations with Epstein. Nothing appears to have resulted from that investigation, and earlier this year acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department did not have any active cases into Epstein associates.
Clayton also oversaw the unsealing of grand jury materials related to Epstein, prompting complaints from victims about the disclosure of their sensitive personal information. The Justice Department's push to unseal those materials resulted in little new information about the investigations into Epstein and was criticized by judges as a largely performative effort while the DOJ refused to release their own materials.
Clayton's office has brought the first two prosecutions of insider trading on prediction markets, including cases against aspecial forces soldierandGoogle employee, putting his office at the center of the debate about how to govern the sites that critics say are rife with insider trading.
Clayton was never confirmed by the Senate as U.S. attorney, though his nomination was approved by the federal judges in the district and was seen by many as a steady hand to lead the high-profile office. He was, however, the subject of criticism earlier this week when he appeared on CNBC and opined about baseless claims of election fraud in California.
"There's a great phrase, 'opportunity for fraud,'" Clayton said, criticizing the state's mail-in voting laws.
Clayton spent most of his career at the law firm Sullivan&Cromwell, where he represented hedge funds, wealthy investors, large banks and massive corporations such as Deutsche Bank, UBS and Alibaba Group. Clayton represented Goldman Sachs during the 2008 financial crisis and Barclays when it purchased Lehman Brothers' assets out of bankruptcy.
During Trump's first administration, Clayton led the SEC, cracking down on cryptocurrencies and winning $14 billion in monetary remedies, including returning $3.5 billion to investors. While he championed the "long-term interests of the Main Street investor," Clayton also pushed deregulations -- such as removing the requirement that hedge funds publish stock positions and loosening the rules for corporate auditors -- that critics said weakened investor protections.
While Clayton generally avoided the political spotlight while at the SEC, a June 2020 proposal to nominate Clayton to serve as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York briefly resulted in political turmoil. The sitting U.S. attorney, Geoffrey Berman, refused to leave his post after then-Attorney General Bill Barr announced he would be replaced by Clayton. The standoff was resolved with Berman's deputy taking over the position, and Clayton continued to lead the SEC.
