Donald Trump’s pick for the director of national intelligence publicly shouldered responsibility for the inadequate redaction of sensitive documents linked to Jeffrey Epstein’s victims during a congressional session held on Wednesday.
Jay Clayton conceded that he bore ultimate accountability for the mishandled release of files in January, attributing the lapse to a ‘technical review error.’
Among the mishandled information were home addresses and even nude photographs of alleged Epstein victims, an oversight that attorneys representing the victims said has caused further trauma and upheaval in their lives.
Clayton holds the position of US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, an area where part of the Epstein investigation was conducted.
In his role as the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Clayton was responsible for ensuring that unsealed grand jury documents did not reveal personal details about the victims.
The judge added this requirement so that a clearly identifiable DOJ official would ‘take ownership’ of reviewing sensitive discovery.
Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico invoked Harry Truman’s saying, ‘The buck stops here,’ and asked where the buck stops in this case, to which Clayton answered, ‘For the Southern District documents, it was me.’
Clayton finally took his seat before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, roughly a month after President Trump torpedoed his own nominee’s confirmation hearing in a pre-dawn Truth Social post that threw Capitol Hill into chaos.
Jay Clayton, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, appears before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill on Wednesday
In the hearing, Clayton admitted mistakes in the release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein
The irony: Clayton had been sailing toward an easy, bipartisan confirmation, with senators in both parties eager to replace acting spy chief Bill Pulte, who has no intelligence background. Then Trump pulled the plug himself.
In June, the President abruptly canceled the hearing and vowed to keep Pulte in place, refusing to let the nomination advance until a string of separate demands were met, among them the confirmation of Jamie McDonald as US Attorney and passage of the SAVE America Act, his voter-ID bill.
‘We are canceling the Senate Hearing RE: DNI today, and will not be going forward until Jamie McDonald is approved to be U.S. Attorney,’ Trump wrote at the time. ‘In the meantime, Bill Pulte will remain as the Acting Director of National Intelligence.’
The stunt drew a pointed rebuke from the committee’s ranking member, Mark Warner, who used his opening statement to needle the President.
Warner said he could not recall another nominee senators had agreed, on a bipartisan basis, to ‘move heaven and earth’ to confirm quickly, only for the president to yank the hearing and, in the process, blow up the critical FISA authorization. ‘I know you had nothing to do with that,’ Warner told Clayton. ‘So I guess congratulations about getting finally in front of this committee.’
The urgency is real. Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a key spy power, has been expired for over a month since it lapsed in the middle of June, and lawmakers in both parties want a confirmed, credentialed DNI in place.
Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia and Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, at the nomination hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday
Clayton is Donald Trump’s nominee for director of intelligence
Clayton’s chief vulnerability is that he has never held a formal national security role. Committee chairman Tom Cotton moved to inoculate him, casting Clayton’s day job as US Attorney for the Southern District of New York as perhaps ‘the number one national security-related US Attorney’s office in the country.’
That office prosecuted the case against captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. Clayton also chaired the SEC from 2017 through the COVID pandemic, a stretch Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota called ‘a period of significant uncertainty for financial markets.’
‘National security and economic security are synonymous,’ Clayton told the committee. Rounds added that Clayton already has a working relationship with CIA director John Ratcliffe to build on.
Clayton was Trump’s second choice.
His first pick, Federal Housing Finance Agency head Bill Pulte, drew swift blowback over his lack of intelligence experience.
The vacancy opened when Tulsi Gabbard resigned to support her husband, Abraham, through cancer treatment.
Asked Wednesday whether he had been told why his hearing was delayed, Clayton declined to reveal the internal discussions.
Cotton noted Wednesday that he intends for the Intelligence Committee to vote to pass along Clayton’s nomination to the full chamber early next week.