Jay Clayton, President Trump’s choice to be the next director of national intelligence, has spent the past 14 months as the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, and served as Wall Street’s top enforcer during Mr. Trump’s first term.
Here is what to know about Mr. Clayton’s career.
What did Mr. Clayton do before becoming U.S. attorney?
Mr. Clayton has moved between private law practice and government service. He was a partner at the New York law firm Sullivan & Cromwell when Mr. Trump chose him for the U.S. attorney post.
Mr. Clayton’s time as the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission in the president’s first term was marked by a generally pro-business approach, though his office brought some of the first enforcement actions involving crypto assets. The office brought an action against Elon Musk over his use of what was then known as Twitter, which Mr. Musk later bought and rebranded as X.
What have been the most important cases in the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office during Mr. Clayton’s tenure?
The Southern District has long been known for pursuing cases that reach beyond U.S. borders and involve national security. The office is currently prosecuting Nicolás Maduro, the former president of Venezuela, who was captured by U.S. military forces in January and brought to Manhattan to face a cocaine importation conspiracy charge and other counts. Mr. Maduro has pleaded not guilty.
And last month, Mr. Clayton announced charges against the commander of an Iran-backed militia for allegedly plotting to attack Jewish sites in the United States, including a synagogue in New York City, and for orchestrating attacks in Europe related to Iran’s campaign of retaliation against the United States and Israel for the war that began in February.
The Southern District is also handling the federal case against Luigi Mangione, the man accused of assassinating UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive in 2024. (Mr. Clayton is recused from the Mangione case, which is being overseen by his deputy.)
Other prominent Southern District prosecutions during Mr. Clayton’s tenure have included the trial and conviction of three brothers, including two who were among the country’s most prominent real estate brokers, for engaging in a yearslong conspiracy to traffic women and girls for sex. In another case, the office has charged 19 people, accusing them of running a year-round drug market in New York City’s Washington Square Park, in which millions of doses of fentanyl, heroin and crack were distributed.
The office also oversaw much of the document review, mandated by Congress, related to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who was being prosecuted by the Southern District in 2019 when he was found hanged in a jail cell, a death that was ruled a suicide.
Why was Jay Clayton not confirmed by the Senate for the U.S. attorney’s position he held?
Shortly after his election in 2024, Mr. Trump said he would name Mr. Clayton to the Southern District post, and he nominated him on his first day back in office. But in April 2025, Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, blocked Mr. Clayton’s confirmation, using a prerogative given to home-state senators.
At the time, Mr. Schumer said Mr. Trump had “made clear he has no fidelity to the law and intends to use the Justice Department, the U.S. attorney offices and law enforcement as weapons to go after his perceived enemies.” Mr. Schumer’s action came after weeks of criticism from some liberal Democrats, who said he was doing too little to resist the president.
Mr. Trump immediately appointed Mr. Clayton to serve as the U.S. attorney on an interim basis, for a 120-day term that ran through August 2025. At that point, the judges of the Southern District federal court, who had the power to fill the vacancy, did so, appointing Mr. Clayton to the post.
Mr. Clayton will remain as the Southern District’s U.S. attorney until he is confirmed as the director of national intelligence, his spokesman, Nicholas Biase, said on Thursday.
How is Mr. Clayton’s tenure viewed by former Southern District prosecutors?
Mr. Clayton has his detractors and his supporters.
Mimi Rocah, a former Southern District prosecutor who later became the Democratic district attorney in Westchester County, has publicly criticized Mr. Clayton for not protesting the Trump administration’s 2025 firing of Maurene Comey. She was one of the office’s most highly regarded trial lawyers, and is the daughter of James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director and one of Mr. Trump’s prominent adversaries.
Ms. Comey later sued, saying her firing was unconstitutional and politically motivated.
Ms. Rocah said Thursday that the episode showed Mr. Clayton would not stand up for his people. “That was a very defining moment,” she said. Ms. Rocah called his tenure “remarkably unremarkable,” and said he often seemed to be auditioning for another job — “we just didn’t know what.”
But Steven R. Peikin, a former Southern District prosecutor who later worked as the S.E.C.’s chief of enforcement under Mr. Clayton and was a partner with him at Sullivan & Cromwell, said Mr. Clayton has had “a very strong tenure as U.S. attorney.”
“He has continued to pursue the areas where the office has long been a national leader, including large-scale securities fraud and international terrorism,” Mr. Peikin said.
At the same time, he added, Mr. Clayton had focused resources on law enforcement priorities that have improved public safety for New Yorkers, including fentanyl trafficking, child exploitation and gun crimes.
“I believe he has earned the confidence of the office, law enforcement partners and the bench,” Mr. Peikin said.
William K. Rashbaum contributed reporting.
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