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, refused on Wednesday to directly acknowledge that the Republican president lost the 2020 election despite repeated questioning by Democrats in a tense Senate confirmation hearing.
Trump “isn’t in the room today,” Democratic Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona told Clayton. “If you can’t disagree with him when he’s not in the room, are you going to be able to disagree with him when you’re sitting across from him?”
Propelled by the Republican president’s unfounded claims that U.S. elections are “rigged” and his refusal to accept his 2020 electoral loss to Democrat Joe Biden, the Trump administration has sought to increase federal oversight of U.S. elections and change the way many Americans vote.
Legal experts say such efforts would take power away from states in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
Clayton said only that Biden had been “certified” as president, while also insisting, “I am not an election denier.”
Trump will deliver a national address on Thursday night about the 2020 election. White House officials said he would discuss newly declassified intelligence.
Clayton’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on his nomination to serve as director of national intelligence became heated when he repeatedly refused to acknowledge that Biden had been elected in 2020.
Pressed by Kelly on whether the winner was the person certified as the victor by Congress and who had the most electoral votes, Clayton said: “I think that’s your characterization. I’m really, I’m not going to continue.”
Lawmakers also questioned Clayton about his recent subpoenas of New York Times journalists in his current role as the U.S. Attorney for Manhattan.
Wednesday’s hearing was the second for Clayton scheduled by the intelligence panel, after Trump last month ordered the abrupt postponement of his first one to put pressure on Congress to pass a contested package of election restrictions known as the SAVE America Act.
That measure remains stalled because it lacks enough votes to pass the Senate. Voting rights groups say it would disenfranchise millions of Americans with no ready access to passports and birth certificates.
Democrats had seemed amenable to confirming Clayton, hoping to quickly replace the acting DNI, Bill Pulte, a close Trump ally and Federal Housing Finance Agency director, who lacks national security and intelligence experience. Pulte replaced Tulsi Gabbard, who left the job in June.
But Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic Senate leader, said Clayton had damaged his chances.
“The performance of Jay Clayton in committee today was abysmal, and it makes it much less likely that he will get Democratic votes,” Schumer told reporters.
Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, the committee’s Republican chairman, said the Intelligence panel would vote early next week on the nomination and send it for consideration by the full Senate.
POLITICIZING INTELLIGENCE?
Lawmakers questioned Clayton about subpoenas he issued 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. The Justice Department said it was not aimed at journalists but at officials leaking sensitive information.
Clayton said the subpoenas were “in connection with an ongoing national security investigation,” and that they were issued as 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, adding that he did not want to discuss the case in detail.
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 Gabbard and Pulte.
The DNI, overseer of the 18-agency U.S. intelligence community, acts as the president’s top intelligence adviser, and is expected to present and defend intelligence analyses that may not support the views of the Oval Office.
Clayton lacks extensive traditional intelligence agency experience, but said he has worked on security matters 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.
Since assuming his acting position last month, Pulte has announced repeated rounds of staff reductions, as some Republicans urge the elimination of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Clayton pushed back, saying 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 involvement in operations and functions performed by other agencies.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle, Jonathan Landay and Luc Cohen; Editing by Don Durfee, Edmund Klamann, Philippa Fletcher, Rod Nickel and Deepa Babington)
Comments