By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON, July 15 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's nominee to be the top U.S. spy, Jay Clayton, appears at his delayed confirmation hearing on Wednesday, and lawmakers said they planned to grill him about his recent subpoenas of New York Times journalists in his current role as the leading U.S. attorney for Manhattan.
The Republican president threw doubt on Clayton's confirmation as Director of National Intelligence (DNI) last month by ordering the abrupt postponement of his
hearing in an effort to force Congress to pass a strict voter identification bill.
Known as the SAVE Act, the voting measure remains stalled in Congress, where it lacks the support needed to pass the Senate. While the administration has said the legislation is needed to protect election security, voting rights groups say it would disenfranchise millions of Americans who lack ready access to passports and birth certificates.
Before Trump's action, Democrats had seemed largely amenable to confirming Clayton, hoping to quickly replace the acting DNI, Bill Pulte, a close Trump ally who previously had been director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and lacked national security experience. Pulte replaced Tulsi Gabbard, who resigned from her job in May.
Clayton raised concerns among Democratic lawmakers, however, after issuing subpoenas on Friday ordering several New York Times journalists to testify before a federal grand jury after they reported 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, a view echoed by some senators.
In a statement to Reuters, a Department of Justice spokesperson did not confirm or deny the subpoenas but said the administration, while not targeting reporters, was concerned about people leaking classified information.
JOURNALISTS SUBPOENAED
"I think one of the questions is what about these subpoenas for New York Times reporters that is in his jurisdiction? What is his commitment to the First Amendment?" Senator Angus King of Maine, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, told Reuters in a brief hallway interview.
King, a senior member of the intelligence panel that will conduct the hearing, said he also wanted to know whether Clayton "will do the most fundamental job of any intelligence person, which is to tell the truth about what the intelligence shows, rather than what the policymaker, including the president, wants to hear."
Still, congressional Democrats — and some Republicans — are eager to move Pulte out of the DNI role, which oversees the 18 U.S. intelligence agencies and has access to the nation's most sensitive secrets.
Skeptical lawmakers from both parties have expressed concern about Pulte's lack of intelligence experience and reputation for "weaponizing" his power within the government against Trump's perceived political foes. Republicans in Congress typically back Trump nominees nearly unanimously.
Since assuming his acting position last month, Pulte has announced repeated rounds of staff reductions.
Lawmakers also hope the removal of Pulte as acting spy chief and confirmation of Clayton would help lead to the renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, which allows law enforcement to collect foreign intelligence without judicial authorization.
Trump continues to repeat unfounded assertions that the U.S. election system is riddled with fraud, despite his party's capture of the White House, Senate and House of Representatives in the 2024 elections.
The Republican president has scheduled a national address on Thursday night about newly declassified intelligence on election investigations and what the White House says are voting machine vulnerabilities, an administration official said.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Don Durfee and Edmund Klamann)
