STATEMENT: Sen. Schiff Statement Ahead of Final Vote on Jay Clayton Nomination as Director of National Intelligence

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) issued the following statement ahead of voting against the nomination of Jay Clayton to be Director of National Intelligence (DNI). “When the position of the DNI was created by Congress after the 9/11 attacks, the law laid out a simple qualification for the position: that the DNI “shall have extensive national security expertise.” Jay Clayton fails that foundational, statutory test. “Not only does Jay Clayton lack the expertise to lead the Intelligence Community, but he has also shown an unwillingness to speak truth to power – an essential prerequisite for any intelligence professional. If he cannot give Congress an honest answer about who won the 2020 election, how can we trust Clayton to prevent politicization of our intelligence agencies or provide objective analysis to the President, especially if that analysis conflicts with a false, but preferred narrative of the Commander in Chief? “As U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Clayton demonstrated his bias towards the President’s personal, political agenda when he issued subpoenas to New York Times journalists and their families, earning the ire of the judge in the case and casting doubt on his truthfulness to the Senate during his nomination hearing. He has directly overseen attacks on our First Amendment, and downplayed Trump’s weaponization of the Justice Department in his own office – advising prosecutors not to resign, but to follow unethical orders from President Trump to drop corruption charges against then-New York Mayor Eric Adams. “First Tulsi Gabbard, and then Bill Pulte have worked to turn our Intelligence Community into an extension of the Oval Office and violated the cardinal rule of the intelligence process by manipulating analysis to fit the narrative whims of Donald Trump. And sadly, both before and after his nomination, Clayton has done little to convince me that he will be any different. “Recently, he cast doubt on the validity of votes cast in California’s elections and helped propagate a false impression of fraud in the vote count. This was done to court the support of the President, once again calling into question his objectivity and whether he could remain nonpartisan. Given the actions of the last DNI and her involvement in seizing ballots from Fulton County, GA, the last thing we need is another DNI to politicize the office and involve himself in matters that are well beyond the scope of the intelligence agencies’ jurisdictions. “His record and his answers under oath to the Senate make it clear Clayton is not a leader who can be counted upon to make decisions on the serious national security threats facing our country, if those decisions would bring him into conflict with the personal or political preferences of the President. “As Senate Republicans move to once again confirm an inexperienced and unqualified nominee to a position of massive national security consequence for years to come, one thing remains clear – this type of politicized leadership will only make Americans less safe.” ###