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Wednesday, July 15, 2026
US Senate to hold hearing today for Trump’s pick to head intelligence agencies after weekslong delay
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Jay Clayton, US President Donald Trump’s pick to head the nation’s intelligence agencies, will testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee today, weeks after Trump abruptly delayed his nomination.
Republicans and even some Democrats have been eager to quickly confirm Clayton, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York and a former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, as they have expressed concerns about Trump’s interim appointee for the intelligence post, Bill Pulte. Pulte, who has been in the job since June 19, is a former housing official with no known intelligence experience and who used his previous administration perch to target perceived adversaries of the president.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton expressed frustration when Trump delayed Clayton’s nomination in a social media post last month, allowing Pulte to take office. Cotton said then that Clayton had been instructed not to appear at a scheduled confirmation hearing, but he rescheduled the hearing three weeks later, with apparent approval from the White House.
While Clayton has received some bipartisan praise, Democrats are expected to aggressively question him on how he would approach the issue of election interference, especially as Trump has said he will deliver a primetime address on Thursday with a focus on elections, suggesting he could revisit long-debunked conspiracy theories about his 2020 defeat to Democrat Joe Biden.
Democrats are also certain to press Clayton on his role in recent subpoenas of four New York Times journalists after they reported on security concerns involving the new, Qatari-gifted Air Force One.
The Times of Israel Community.