Clayton confirmation hearing postponed as Trump tries to push Senate on voter ID bill

Clayton confirmation hearing postponed as Trump tries to push Senate on voter ID bill

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he was delaying federal prosecutor Jay Clayton's nomination to lead the U.S. intelligence community in a bid to force Congress to act on a voter ID bill that currently lacks enough support for passage.

A key Republican senator, Tom Cotton, had vowed to push forward with a hearing anyway, but Trump eventually directed Clayton to not appear for his confirmation proceedings, forcing Cotton, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, to announce that the hearing was postponed.

"It's regrettable that the president has directed Jay Clayton not to appear at his confirmation hearing today," Cotton, of Arkansas, said in a statement. "Mr. Clayton is a patriot and a highly qualified nominee, as the president has said repeatedly. While today's hearing is now unfortunately postponed, I look forward to proceeding with his confirmation in the near future."

The delay forced by Trump has injected even more uncertainty over the long-term leadership of the 18-agency intelligence community and dashed hopes for a swift renewal of a crucial surveillance program that expired in Congress last week due to bipartisan anger over Trump's pick of Bill Pulte, a top U.S. housing official, as acting director of national intelligence.

The tumult began early Wednesday, when Trump, in a social media post just hours before Clayton's scheduled confirmation hearing, said that he would keep Pulte as acting DNI. Democratic and Republican lawmakers had opposed Trump's selection of Pulte, citing his lack of known experience in intelligence and his use of his current administration perch to target perceived adversaries of the president - resistance that last week forced Trump to turn to Clayton.

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, called Trump's post an "extraordinary display of dysfunction from a president who seems determined to turn America's national security into a political bargaining chip."

"The biggest obstacle to resolving these issues has not been Senate Democrats or Senate Republicans," Warner said. "It has been the chaos and confusion coming from the White House itself."

Hanging in the balance is not only the identity of the nominee but also Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which permits spy agencies to collect without a warrant the communications of targeted foreigners located outside the United States.

Clayton had been set to appear on Wednesday afternoon for a Senate confirmation hearing that was fast-tracked because of the program's lapse. Democrats had said they would not renew the expired surveillance programs until Trump withdrew the selection of Pulte.

In his social media post, Trump accused Democrats of breaking a deal to renew the program after he nominated Clayton. Trump also said he does not want to remove Clayton from his current position as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York before his replacement, James McDonald, is approved. McDonald was named to the Justice Department post on Saturday.

And Trump added another condition by seeming to link his approval of the surveillance program to the passage of a bill requiring people to show ID to vote.

"Therefore, to add a slight bit of intrigue but, for the Good of the Nation, and the People of our Country, I will not approve FISA without THE SAVE AMERICA ACT going along with it," Trump said, using the acronym for the surveillance program and his name for the voter ID bill.

Trump made the announcement in Evian-les-Bains, France, where he was participating in the final day of the Group of Seven summit of leading industrial economies.

The intelligence director position became available after Tulsi Gabbard, who had held the job, announced last month that she was resigning to spend time with her husband as he fights cancer.

Clayton, a chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump's first term, has spent the last 14 months as the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, one of the Justice Department's premier posts.