Can Jay Clayton 2.O Be Trusted to Stand Up to the President?

The Jay Clayton who chaired the Securities and Exchange Commission would make a perfect Director of National Intelligence (DNI). Jay, who was my boss at the SEC, was someone who pulled no punches and always spoke the truth.

Those are crucial qualities for the vital role of the DNI, the job Clayton now holds, appointed by President Trump and confirmed by the Senate. As such he heads the U.S. intelligence community and acts as the principal advisor to the president, the National Security Council, and the Homeland Security Council on all intelligence relating to national security. That includes foreign election interference. The DNI coordinates the intelligence work of 18 federal departments and agencies, including the CIA, FBI, National Security Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, military intelligence components, and intelligence operations at the Departments of State, Treasury, Energy, and Homeland Security. The DNI fosters information-sharing among often-competing and territorial organizations – a tough assignment – to produce objective intelligence.

His office’s credibility depends on analysts who are free to present their best assessment—even when it is politically inconvenient. Although the DNI serves at the pleasure of the president, intelligence judgments are not supposed to be shaped for a predetermined outcome.

The Jay Clayton with whom I worked would resist political pressure. He could be counted on to always – and I mean always – speak the truth. Will DNI Clayton speak the truth, even when it conflicts with the president’s “alternative facts”?

Clayton’s performance in his run-up to appointment raises doubts.

In July, during his Senate confirmation hearing for DNI, he refused to admit an objective reality: that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, a fact Trump denies.

 Clayton also testified he hadn’t been aware that then-DNI Tulsi Gabbard was at the FBI raid on the Fulton County election hub six months earlier, until Sen. John Ossoff mentioned it in a private meeting the day before the hearing. That, despite months-long, widespread media coverage of Gabbard’s mystifying presence at the raid and Trump’s request that she be there.

In a June 2026, CNBC interview while serving as U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, Clayton was asked about the California electoral system. Without providing evidence of wrongdoing, he said, “On the integrity side, we’re doing an absolutely terrible job, and the American people are right to question it.” He asserted, “there’s an opportunity for fraud” in California, while conceding he was unaware of any actual fraud in the state’s system.

How would Jay respond if Trump were to say in the face of expected Democratic victories in November that the elections had been riddled with fraud and foreign interference – his likely rallying cry? Intelligence completely debunked such claims in the past, but what if the new DNI tells him only what he wants to hear and buries evidence to the contrary?

Would that be the cover for the House of Representatives to decide contested House races, and the Senate to resolve contested Senate races? These are not theoretical questions but valid concerns, considering Trump tried in so many ways to reverse the legitimate 2020 presidential election result to the point of inciting mob violence at the U.S. Capitol.

The Trump cabinet features people who bend to the dictates of the president, no matter how ungrounded they are in fact. Consider the willingness of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and, at least initially, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro blaming an innocent man for damage to the Reflecting Pool, as Trump had done and continues to do.

Perhaps humoring the president is what it takes to land a top spot in this administration. Attorney General Todd Blanche, for example, showed elasticity toward principle and norms in his quest for the permanent top job at the Department of Justice.

As for the new Director of National Intelligence, I am pulling for the re-emergence of SEC Chairman Clayton. He was the Platonic ideal of a public official — smart, conscientious, fair, kind, honest, and apolitical. In my long legal career in private practice and two stints at the SEC, I’ve never dealt with anyone more capable or with higher integrity. No one doubted that he would do the right thing in pursuing the SEC’s mission. Would that Jay Clayton have won the DNI job? Has that Jay Clayton transformed himself into yet another deferential cabinet member like those who surround Trump?

A president who favors subservience to his faulty version of truth is bound to lead the country into danger. Nowhere else is this truer than when it comes to the reliability of intelligence. For the sake of the nation’s security and our democratic system, let’s hope that the old Jay Clayton returns.

Walter E. Jospin, an Atlanta lawyer, was the Director of the SEC’s Atlanta Regional Office from 2015 to 2018, overseeing Commission operations in a five-state region. He is a founder and board member of Georgia Lawyers for the Rule of Law.