On Thursday, Donald Trump belatedly reacted to the revolt (which included several key Republicans) over his preposterous installation of uber-loyalist Bill Pulte, who has not a shred of national security experience, as acting director of national intelligence, by nominating Jay Clayton for the position. But he has no such experience either.
Clayton, SEC chair in Trump’s first term, was a longtime Wall Street lawyer at the power-law firm Sullivan & Cromwell. He now serves as U.S. attorney in Manhattan.
Some Democrats were quick to take the bait, which matters at a time when the party is allowing a key warrantless wiretapping provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to expire today, because of the Pulte appointment. Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said that Clayton’s “intelligence, temperament and deep commitment to public service will make him a terrific DNI.” Presumably, Himes would vote for a FISA extension if Clayton were confirmed, and drag many Democrats along.
But only by comparison with the thuggish Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency who has used confidential mortgage records to create failed trumped-up cases against Fed governor Lisa Cook and other perceived political enemies, does Clayton seem qualified. He is not quite as clumsily loyal to Trump, but he has made public comments that are odd for a U.S. attorney. This week, he appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box and alleged that there were major problems with recent elections in California, which he has no jurisdiction over, after Trump baselessly suggested there had been fraud.
The deeper problem with Clayton is his history as a Wall Street lawyer, often on deals that intermingle financial interests with potential national security questions. At Sullivan & Cromwell, he handled the IPO of China’s Alibaba Group, at the time the largest IPO in history. Clayton represented the underwriting banks in the offering. In June 2026, the Department of Defense added Alibaba to a list of companies it considers linked to China’s military.
Clayton also represented Chinese retailer Suning Commerce Group in its cross-investment with Alibaba. Alibaba invested roughly $4.6 billion for a 19.99 percent stake in Suning, while Suning invested about $2.3 billion in Alibaba.
Clayton often represented major global investment banks, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, and Bank of America, in securities offerings. Chinese companies typically access U.S. capital markets via these banks.
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So Clayton comes to his knowledge of U.S.-China national security issues via work as a lawyer on deals designed to ease Chinese penetration of U.S. capital markets. He has never worked on the government side of issues that address concerns about China’s threat to U.S. security.
The cross-fertilization of top intelligence jobs with top investment banking jobs is an old story and not a happy one. The Dulles brothers, who served respectively as President Eisenhower’s secretary of state (John Foster Dulles) and as longtime CIA director (Allen Dulles) both had been longtime partners at, you guessed it, Sullivan & Cromwell. John Foster Dulles became a partner on the eve of World War I, and Allen Dulles in 1926. Both spent their entire pre-government careers at Sullivan & Cromwell.
When the Dulles brothers presided over U.S.-sponsored coups against foreign leaders who threatened corporate or financial interests, the cross-fertilization and multiple contacts served them well, though the coups ultimately backfired, most notably in Iran.
Given that the heights of American financial capitalism involve the intermingling of corporate and national intelligence issues, what could be more natural (and perverse) than yet another top intelligence official coming from Sullivan & Cromwell?
Trump represents the weird alliance of MAGA pseudo-populism with Wall Street domination. Though Jay Clayton is more reassuringly polished than the crude Bill Pulte, in key respects he is worse. It would be useful, and overdue, if key Democrats in Congress connected the dots.
