President Donald Trump is leveraging his authority over key national security nominations to force Senate action on both a U.S. Attorney appointment and sweeping election integrity reforms.
According to WND, the President announced that Jay Claytons nomination to serve as Director of National Intelligence (DNI) will be put on ice until the Senate confirms Jamie McDonald as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. In a lengthy post to Truth Social early Wednesday, Trump said he was canceling the scheduled Senate hearing for Clayton, whom he praised as a Great Patriot, declaring it will not be going forward until Jamie McDonald is approved to be U.S. Attorney for the powerful New York post.
At the same time, Trump is tying his support for federal surveillance powers to long-stalled election integrity legislation that has been fiercely resisted by Democrats and some establishment Republicans. The President stated in the same post that he will not approve any extension of the federal governments surveillance authorities unless an election integrity bill is attached to the package.
The Senate had moved with unusual speed to schedule Claytons confirmation hearing, underscoring the pressure on lawmakers to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which lapsed on June 12. That provision is ostensibly designed to permit U.S. surveillance of foreign targets, but in practice it has enabled warrantless searches of Americans communications and data, a power that conservatives have long warned is ripe for abuse.
Trump made clear he intends to use that leverage to secure reforms that would restore public confidence in elections after years of irregularities and partisan gamesmanship. [T]o 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 wrote, referring to the election integrity legislation the Senate has been debating for months.
The President also revealed that both parties had previously agreed to remove Bill Pulte as temporary DNI in exchange for a FISA extension, only for Democrats to renege once Republicans had already moved. Trump had nominated Pulte, a housing official, to serve as acting DNI and Clayton as the permanent intelligence chief, aligning national security leadership with his broader reform agenda.
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, Trump said in the post. Now, the Dumocrats are saying they will vote against FISA So, the Republicans wound up having fulfilled their commitment, but Dumocrats broke the Deal.
Not complicated, actually, the Republicans fell into a trap, he added, casting the episode as another example of Democrats exploiting GOP eagerness to accommodate them on national security. Trump has now tapped McDonald to replace Clayton as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, further tightening the linkage between personnel decisions and his push for accountability.
Earlier in the week, Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters that the Senate would seek to extend FISAs warrantless surveillance powers without the SAVE Act attached, a move that would preserve the intelligence communitys broad authority while sidelining election safeguards. Trumps maneuver signals that, in his second administration, he is no longer willing to grant the security state a blank check without demanding protections for civil liberties and the integrity of the ballot box.
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