President Donald Trump on Wednesday complicated Senate Republican plans to quickly revive a key surveillance authority, delaying a scheduled confirmation hearing for Jay Clayton and pressing for the inclusion of a controversial voter ID measure.
Trump, in an early morning social media post, said he was “cancelling” the hearing for Clayton to become Director of National Intelligence, which was one of several moving parts in the push to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Clayton was scheduled to testify this afternoon in front of the Senate’s Intelligence panel, but Trump said that “will not be going forward until Jamie McDonald is approved to be U.S. Attorney.”
Clayton is currently leading the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Trump said in the post he did not want Clayton to leave that position until McDonald is in place.
Senate Republicans had moved quickly to confirm Clayton as DNI in part because Trump had named Bill Pulte as acting DNI and said he would start that role Friday.
