WASHINGTON (AP) — The two-month tenure of Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence will officially come to an end on Monday when the housing regulator officially hands the reins to Jay Clayton, President Donald Trump’s pick for the job.
Pulte said in a social media post on Saturday that he had spoken about the handover with Trump and Clayton — who was confirmed by the Senate this week.
Trump chose Pulte as an interim director when former director Tulsi Gabbard resigned. But the pick rankled Republican lawmakers who said the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency lacked national security credentials for the role.
Clayton, formerly the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and a one-time Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, was confirmed along party lines on Tuesday.
The GOP-led Senate had hoped to confirm Clayton in June, but the president delayed his hearing. During Pulte’s brief tenure, Trump delivered a speech from the White House doubling down on his false claims about the 2020 election, which he lost, and released classified documents that he said were relevant to his arguments.
Clayton has emphasized his own government and national security experience, attempting to assuage senators in both parties. But he lost bipartisan support for his nomination after a contentious hearing in which he repeatedly refused to say that former President Joe Biden won the 2020 election.
Before the Senate vote on Clayton, Pulte released intelligence community documents from 2020 that described China’s capacity to interfere in the American political process as well as vulnerabilities in the election system.
The substance of the material was largely recycled and already known, but its disclosure is part of the broader Trump administration effort to raise concerns about the integrity of U.S. elections.
The White House has not yet announced details for when Clayton will be sworn in for his new job.
Mike Catalini, The Associated Press
