President Trump nominated Walter "Jay" Clayton III, currently serving as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, to be Director of National Intelligence, Reuters reported on June 11, 2026. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence scheduled an open confirmation hearing for June 17, 2026, at 2:00 PM in Dirksen G50.

Clayton carries an unusual résumé for the DNI post. He spent most of his career as a corporate attorney and served as SEC chairman from 2017 to 2020 — a tenure defined by capital formation policy and enforcement priorities rather than intelligence tradecraft. Trump appointed him U.S. Attorney for SDNY in 2020, giving him prosecutorial experience, though that office's work centers on financial crime, public corruption, and national security cases within the Southern District rather than on the collection and integration functions that define the ODNI's mandate.

The DNI role was created by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 to serve as the principal adviser to the president on intelligence matters and to coordinate the 18-element Intelligence Community — a bureaucratic span that includes the CIA, NSA, DIA, and the intelligence arms of every major cabinet department. The position carries statutory authority over IC budgets and personnel but has historically operated in tension with the CIA director and the Defense Department over operational control.

Clayton's nomination reaches the committee at a moment when the IC's civilian leadership has already seen significant turnover in the current administration. His confirmation hearing will put his national security credentials under direct scrutiny, particularly his familiarity with signals intelligence, human collection, and the President's Daily Brief process — the core functions that flow through the DNI's front office daily.

The open hearing format means the public record will include at least some portion of senators' questions on those qualifications, though the committee routinely follows open sessions with closed ones for topics that cannot be addressed at the unclassified level.