President Donald Trump’s nominee, Jay Clayton, accepted responsibility Wednesday for the inadequate redactions in materials released publicly concerning Jeffrey Epstein’s victims during a congressional hearing.
Clayton acknowledged that ultimate accountability rested with him after a tranche of files made public in January exposed information that officials later attributed to a “technical review error.”
The release included sensitive details such as addresses and nude photographs of potential Epstein victims. Attorneys for survivors said the disclosure retraumatized their clients and “turned their lives upside down.”
Clayton serves as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where part of the Epstein investigation fell under the office’s jurisdiction.
In that role, Clayton was required to personally certify that unsealed grand jury materials did not reveal victims’ private identifying information.
A judge imposed the certification requirement to ensure that a clearly identifiable Justice Department official would “take ownership” of the review of highly sensitive discovery materials.
Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico cited Harry Truman’s famous phrase, “The buck stops here,” and pressed Clayton on where responsibility lay. Clayton replied, “For the Southern District documents, it was me.”
Clayton appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, about a month after Trump disrupted his own nominee’s confirmation process with a pre-dawn Truth Social post that sent Capitol Hill into confusion.
Jay Clayton, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, appears before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill on Wednesday
In the hearing, Clayton admitted mistakes in the release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein
The irony: Clayton had been sailing toward an easy, bipartisan confirmation, with senators in both parties eager to replace acting spy chief Bill Pulte, who has no intelligence background. Then Trump pulled the plug himself.
In June, the President abruptly canceled the hearing and vowed to keep Pulte in place, refusing to let the nomination advance until a string of separate demands were met, among them the confirmation of Jamie McDonald as US Attorney and passage of the SAVE America Act, his voter-ID bill.
‘We are canceling the Senate Hearing RE: DNI today, and will not be going forward until Jamie McDonald is approved to be U.S. Attorney,’ Trump wrote at the time. ‘In the meantime, Bill Pulte will remain as the Acting Director of National Intelligence.’
The stunt drew a pointed rebuke from the committee’s ranking member, Mark Warner, who used his opening statement to needle the President.
Warner said he could not recall another nominee senators had agreed, on a bipartisan basis, to ‘move heaven and earth’ to confirm quickly, only for the president to yank the hearing and, in the process, blow up the critical FISA authorization. ‘I know you had nothing to do with that,’ Warner told Clayton. ‘So I guess congratulations about getting finally in front of this committee.’
The urgency is real. Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a key spy power, has been expired for over a month since it lapsed in the middle of June, and lawmakers in both parties want a confirmed, credentialed DNI in place.
Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia and Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, at the nomination hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday
Clayton is Donald Trump’s nominee for director of intelligence
Clayton’s chief vulnerability is that he has never held a formal national security role. Committee chairman Tom Cotton moved to inoculate him, casting Clayton’s day job as US Attorney for the Southern District of New York as perhaps ‘the number one national security-related US Attorney’s office in the country.’
That office prosecuted the case against captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. Clayton also chaired the SEC from 2017 through the COVID pandemic, a stretch Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota called ‘a period of significant uncertainty for financial markets.’
‘National security and economic security are synonymous,’ Clayton told the committee. Rounds added that Clayton already has a working relationship with CIA director John Ratcliffe to build on.
Clayton was Trump’s second choice.
His first pick, Federal Housing Finance Agency head Bill Pulte, drew swift blowback over his lack of intelligence experience.
The vacancy opened when Tulsi Gabbard resigned to support her husband, Abraham, through cancer treatment.
Asked Wednesday whether he had been told why his hearing was delayed, Clayton declined to reveal the internal discussions.
Cotton noted Wednesday that he intends for the Intelligence Committee to vote to pass along Clayton’s nomination to the full chamber early next week.
