Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton

Jay Clayton is the Director of National Intelligence. President Trump nominated him on June 11, 2026, after Tulsi Gabbard resigned, and the Senate confirmed him on July 28, 2026, by a vote of 51 to 47. He was sworn in on August 3, 2026.

Before leading the intelligence community, Clayton served as United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from April 2025 to July 2026. He was chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission from May 2017 to December 2020.

Clayton spent more than twenty years as a partner at the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, where he worked on major financial transactions, and taught at the University of Pennsylvania Law School from 2009 to 2017. He began his legal career as a law clerk in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Born Walter Joseph Clayton III on July 11, 1966, at Fort Eustis in Newport News, Virginia, he earned a B.S. in engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, a B.A. in economics from the University of Cambridge, and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He is married to Gretchen Butler.