The Senate Intelligence Committee held a confirmation hearing for Jay Clayton on July 15, and Democrats pressed him with tough questions.
During the July 15 confirmation hearing, Clayton refused to say who won the 2020 presidential election.
Todd Blanche also faced tough questioning Wednesday in a separate confirmation hearing for attorney general.
Committee Chair Tom Cotton officially set the hearing date after a June hearing was postponed at the last minute when Trump intervened hours before it was set and said Claytons confirmation should not move forward until Jamie McDonalds nomination was approved.
Republicans are seeking to confirm Clayton before leaving for a weeks-long break at the start of August and hope moving his nomination will break a stalemate over a three-year extension of Section 702 authority; Democrats have said they will not vote to reauthorize the provision until Bill Pulte is removed from the post of acting director of national intelligence.
Several Democrats have spoken positively about Clayton, including Sen. Mark Warner, the ranking member of the Intelligence Committee, and Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, who said, "His intelligence, temperament and deep commitment to public service will make him a terrific DNI."
A federal judge appointed Clayton last year to be U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York after his nomination stalled, he previously served as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission and was confirmed to that post in a 61-37 Senate vote, and he was a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell.
Trump named Bill Pulte to be acting national intelligence director in early June, succeeding Tulsi Gabbard, who said she was stepping down because of her husbands cancer diagnosis; Pulte took over the post on June 19, and Democrats and some Republicans expressed concerns about his lack of a national security background and his role compiling information to launch investigations while head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
Since taking over in mid-June, Pulte has ousted several holdovers from the prior directors leadership team and reassigned roughly 45 career intelligence officials, including many in the agencys intelligence coordination hub.
The hearing is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m.
The Justice Department issued subpoenas last Friday to journalists who reported on security concerns with the presidents new, Qatari-donated Air Force One; Claytons name appeared on the subpoenas, alarming Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.
The Justice Department announced last week that Jamie McDonald was joining the U.S. attorneys office in Manhattan as Claytons deputy to oversee a transition, though the White House does not appear to have sent McDonalds nomination to the Senate yet.
Senators let FISA lapse over concerns about acting DNI Bill Pulte, and the programs legal authorization under Section 702 lapsed in June.
Trump wrote on social media that he was canceling the earlier Senate hearing and would not proceed "until Jamie McDonald is approved to be U.S. Attorney," adding, "In the meantime, Bill Pulte will remain as the Acting Director of National Intelligence."
Pulte, who has no prior national security experience, is best known in the Trump administration for launching probes into several people over allegations of mortgage fraud and possible misuse of authority, including Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Sen. Adam Schiff and former Rep. Eric Swalwell; all have denied wrongdoing.
In his short tenure as acting director, Pulte moved to cut and mass fire employees in June and sought to slash hundreds of jobs across the Office of the Director of National Intelligence; it was unclear how many positions were affected but sources expected the National Counterterrorism Center to be hit hard.
Clayton lacks experience in intelligence-gathering and national security matters, having spent the bulk of his career as a corporate attorney and, before his appointment as U.S. attorney, lacking meaningful experience in criminal matters.
As U.S. attorney in Manhattan, Clayton issued subpoenas to reporters in the Air Force One probe and oversaw the unsealing of grand jury materials related to Jeffrey Epstein, prompting complaints from victims about disclosure of sensitive personal information; the Justice Department spokeswoman said, "Reporters are not the targets, those leaking classified information are."
It is not clear how long the Intelligence Committee will take to consider Claytons nomination, but he could potentially be confirmed by the Senate by the end of next week if there is unanimous agreement to speed up his consideration.