Following the Senate’s Party-Line Confirmation of DNI Jay Clayton, A Reminder of His Election Denialism and Support for Government Weaponization
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 29, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Senate voted 51–47 along party lines Tuesday night to confirm Jay Clayton as Director of National Intelligence. As he starts his tenure, here’s a reminder of his legacy of election denialism and support for Trump’s weaponization of government.
Read the highlights:
Clayton wouldn't say who won in 2020. At his July 15 hearing, Sen. Jon Ossoff asked Clayton five times who won the 2020 election. Clayton refused every time, at one point saying he was "not going to engage in the theater". Ossoff told him: "You refuse to answer a basic question about who won a presidential election, but you ask to lead America's intelligence community".
Clayton cast doubt on elections from the U.S. Attorney's office. Days before his nomination, Clayton told CNBC that "we're doing an absolutely terrible job" on election integrity and that "the American people are right to question it." Given a chance under oath to say whether voter fraud is actually a problem, he said only that officials couldn't "say definitively whether there is, or is not, until we have better processes."
Clayton defended a $1.776 billion settlement a judge called illegitimate. Clayton called the "Anti-Weaponization Fund" deal "a pretty good deal for the government." A federal judge later found the underlying case had been "brought for an improper purpose" — with no viable basis in law or fact — and that the government had "abdicat[ed] its responsibility to zealously defend the interests of the United States."
…And when asked whether January 6 defendants should be paid out of that fund, he said they should have “recourse.” “If people have been inappropriately and intentionally subject to prosecution, they should have recourse,” he told the committee.
Clayton subpoenaed reporters at their homes — then it fell apart in court. As U.S. Attorney, Clayton's office subpoenaed New York Times reporters over their reporting on the president's Qatari-donated jet. Eight days after telling the Senate he was confident in his office's procedures, DOJ withdrew the subpoenas after a judge asked prosecutors point-blank whether subpoenas were meant to be "the last step" rather than "the first step."
