Clayton declines to say Biden won 2020 vote at DNI confirmation hearing

Jay Clayton, President Donald Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, declined at a Senate hearing Wednesday to say that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, telling lawmakers instead that Biden “was certified.” The hearing put renewed scrutiny on a post that would give Clayton authority across 18 intelligence agencies at a time when the Section 702 foreign surveillance program has lapsed amid a dispute between the White House and Congress.

Clayton, a former Securities and Exchange Commission chair who is now U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, appeared before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence after an earlier hearing was halted in June. Trump had instructed Clayton not to attend that session, writing on Truth Social that he was pausing the nomination partly because he wanted lawmakers to pair a disputed election measure with the renewal of the surveillance law.

The committee is expected to vote on Clayton’s nomination next week. If it approves him, the nomination would move to the full Senate, where Republicans hold the majority.

Election questions dominate hearing

Democratic senators pressed Clayton repeatedly on U.S. election security and his past public comments. Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia asked whether Clayton knew that Tulsi Gabbard, his predecessor as director of national intelligence, had taken part earlier this year in a raid at a Fulton County, Georgia, election office. Clayton said he had learned of Gabbard’s involvement from Ossoff during a private meeting earlier in the week.

Ossoff then asked whether it was appropriate for the director of national intelligence to oversee domestic search warrants at sensitive election sites. Clayton did not give a direct answer. Ossoff told Clayton during the hearing that his responses and testimony lacked credibility.

Asked several times who won the 2020 election, Clayton did not name Biden as the winner. “I am not an election denier. Joe Biden was certified,” Clayton said. Ossoff described the answers as “disqualifying.”

Sen. Angus King of Maine, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, also questioned Clayton about remarks he made in June on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” where Clayton said the U.S. had a “deep problem with voting” and that Americans were right to question election integrity. Clayton told King on Wednesday that he was referring to what he viewed as inadequate audit trails in some election systems.

When King asked whether voter fraud is a problem in U.S. elections, Clayton said he did not think the question could be answered definitively without better procedures.

Subpoenas and surveillance dispute

Clayton also faced questions from Sens. Michael Bennet of Colorado and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York about subpoenas issued to New York Times reporters. The New York Times has said the subpoenas were delivered last week after its reporting on security concerns involving a new Air Force One that Qatar had given to Trump.

The reporters were ordered to appear before a grand jury Wednesday in connection with an alleged violation of federal criminal law, according to the New York Times. Clayton said he could not discuss details of the investigation, but told senators he was confident that procedures were in place to protect the First Amendment, press freedom and journalists from intimidation.

The nomination has also been shaped by the interim appointment of Bill Pulte, a Trump ally and director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, after Gabbard announced in May that she would leave the DNI role. Lawmakers from both parties have questioned Pulte’s suitability for the intelligence post. CNBC has reported that Pulte, while leading the FHFA, opened mortgage-related inquiries into Trump opponents.

Since taking over as acting DNI, Pulte has carried out Trump’s instructions to dismiss dozens of senior intelligence officials, according to CNBC. Negotiations over Section 702, a foreign surveillance provision under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, later broke down, and the program expired in June as Democrats objected to Pulte’s appointment.

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the intelligence committee’s Democratic vice chair, said at the hearing that Trump’s decision to stop Clayton’s earlier appearance was unusual because senators from both parties had been seeking to move the nomination quickly given the importance of the job.

This story draws on original reporting from CNBC.