Jay Clayton

Clayton’s full name is Walter Joseph Clayton III. He attended Lafayette College from 1984 to 1985 without taking a degree, moved to the University of PennsylvaniaUniversity of PennsylvaniaThe University of Pennsylvania, commonly called Penn, is a private research university and Ivy League member in Philadelphia. It traces its origins to a 1740 charity-school project; Benjamin Franklin proposed his academy in 1749, classes began in 1751, and a 1791 merger established the institution under its present name. Penn has 12 schools, with undergraduate education concentrated in arts and sciences, engineering, nursing and Wharton. Enrollment totaled 29,384 in fall 2025, and the fiscal 2025 endowment was $24.81 billion. As of October 2026, J. Larry Jameson was president, with his term scheduled to end on June 30, 2027.Open the full entry in 1986 and earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering in 1988; a Thouron Award took him to the United Kingdom, where he earned a B.A. and M.A. in economics from the University of Cambridge in 1990. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania Law School from 1990 to 1993, receiving his J.D. in May 1993. During law school he was a summer associate at Dechert, Price and Rhoads in 1991 and at Sullivan & Cromwell in 1992.⁠[1][1][1][2][1][1][1][1]

From August 1993 to August 1995 Clayton clerked for Judge Marvin Katz of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.⁠[1][1][2]

In October 1995 Clayton joined Sullivan & Cromwell’s Washington office as an associate, moved to New York in May 1998, was based in London from March 2000 to August 2005 and was a partner in New York from August 2005 until April 2017. Over more than 20 years at the firm he advised public and private companies on securities offerings, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and regulatory and enforcement proceedings, and served on the firm’s management committee and as co-managing partner of its General Practice Group. From 2009 to 2017 he was an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, teaching “M&A Through the Business Cycle” each spring.⁠[1][1][1][1][2][3][2]

On January 20, 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Clayton to chair the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The Senate confirmed him 61–37 on May 2, and on May 4 he was sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy as the SEC’s 32nd chairman. During his tenure he was also a member of the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, the Financial Stability Board, the International Organization of Securities Commissions and the Financial Stability Oversight Council.⁠[2][4][2][5]

In September 2018 the SEC charged Elon Musk with securities fraud over his August 7 tweets saying he could take Tesla private at $420 a share and that funding had been secured, and charged Tesla with lacking disclosure controls over Musk’s tweets. On September 29 both settled without admitting or denying the allegations: Musk stepped down as Tesla chairman and was barred from the role for three years, Tesla added two independent directors, and Musk and Tesla each paid a $20 million penalty.⁠[6][6][6][6][6][6][6]

In 2020 the Trump administration sought to remove Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York whose office was investigating Trump associates, and install Clayton in his place; Berman refused to resign until Attorney General William Barr agreed to let a trusted deputy succeed him, and the plan stalled amid bipartisan pushback.⁠[4][4][7]

On November 16, 2020, Clayton confirmed he would step down at year-end. During his tenure the commission advanced more than 65 final rules, including Regulation Best Interest, which raised the standard of conduct for broker-dealers serving retail customers; on enforcement it obtained more than $14 billion in monetary remedy orders, including a record $4.68 billion in fiscal 2020, and returned about $3.5 billion to harmed investors; and it paid about $565 million to whistleblowers, including the program’s largest single award of $114 million.⁠[8][8][8][8][8]

In crypto assets, the SEC under Clayton brought 57 enforcement cases against crypto firms, initial coin offerings and similar projects. On December 22, 2020, in the final days of his tenure, the SEC sued Ripple LabsRippleRipple is an American fintech company, legally named Ripple Labs Inc., that provides banks, payment providers, funds, and businesses with blockchain- and digital asset-based cross-border payments, digital asset custody, a U.S. dollar stablecoin, prime brokerage, and corporate treasury management services. Its business makes extensive use of the public XRP Ledger blockchain and its native token XRP, but neither is the same as the company itself; from 2020 to 2025, the company fought a nearly five-year legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over whether its XRP sales were unregistered securities offerings.Open the full entry, co-founder Christian Larsen and CEO Bradley Garlinghouse, alleging they raised more than $1.3 billion through an unregistered offering of XRP.⁠[9][9][10][10][10]

In February 2021 Apollo Global Management announced that Clayton would become its newly created lead independent director effective March 1; at the same time he rejoined Sullivan & Cromwell as senior policy advisor and of counsel and returned to the University of Pennsylvania Law School as an adjunct professor. By October 2022 he was Apollo’s non-executive chairman, and he joined the American Express board effective October 5, 2022.⁠[3][3][3][5][5]

During this period he also served on the advisory board of the crypto custody company Fireblocks, on the academic and regulatory committee of One River Digital Asset Management, as an advisor to the hedge fund Brevan Howard and as a CNBCCNBCCNBC is an American business and financial news cable channel launched by NBC in 1989; it merged with its rival FNN in 1991 and since January 2026 has been part of Versant Media Group, spun off from Comcast.Open the full entry contributor, as a Lehigh University trustee and co-chair of Penn’s Institute for Law and Economics, and from January 2022 on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s Systemic Resolution Advisory Committee; most of these roles ended when he became U.S. Attorney in April 2025.⁠[1][1][1][1][1][1][1]

On November 14, 2024, President-elect Trump announced Clayton’s nomination as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, after speculation that he was being considered for Treasury secretary. Trump called him “a highly respected business leader, counsel, and public servant.”⁠[4][4]

On April 16, 2025, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer used the “blue slip” practice to block a Senate vote on Clayton’s nomination. Earlier, interim U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon had resigned after refusing a Justice Department order to drop corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric AdamsEric AdamsEric Adams is an American politician and former police officer who served as mayor of New York City from 2022 to 2025, following service in the New York State Senate and as Brooklyn borough president. He is the author of Healthy at Last and has been interviewed by School of Hard Knocks.Open the full entry. On April 22 the Trump administration installed Clayton as interim U.S. Attorney, and he took office that day, naming public safety, fighting fraud against the elderly and vulnerable, financial-system integrity and national security as his priorities.⁠[11][12][7][9][9]

With his interim term expiring on or about August 19, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, acting under 28 U.S.C. § 546(d), appointed Clayton U.S. Attorney effective August 20, to serve until a U.S. Attorney nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate takes office.⁠[13][13][13]

From April 2026 Clayton chaired the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee.⁠[1]

In May 2026 Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced her resignation; Trump then named Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte as acting director, drawing criticism from both parties because Pulte lacked intelligence experience, and Democrats threatened to withhold renewal of foreign intelligence surveillance powers unless a permanent nominee was named. On June 11 Trump announced on social media that he would nominate Clayton as Director of National Intelligence, writing that “few people anywhere in the Legal Community are respected at the level of Jay,” and urged the Senate to confirm him quickly. The post coordinates 18 federal intelligence agencies and serves as the president’s principal intelligence adviser.⁠[12][12][14][12][12][12][12]

Republicans had hoped to confirm Clayton in June, but Trump delayed his hearing so that Pulte could serve for several weeks. On July 15 the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence held his confirmation hearing. Asked by Democratic vice chair Mark Warner whether he had denied that Joe Biden won the 2020 election, Clayton replied, “I’m not an election denier. Joe Biden was certified as the president of the United States,” but when Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff pressed him on who won the 2020 election, he declined to answer directly. Democrats also questioned him about the Southern District’s subpoenas of New York Times reporters.⁠[14][15][16][16][16][16][17]

On July 28 the Senate confirmed Clayton as Director of National Intelligence by a party-line vote of 51–47, with no Democrats in support. Senate Majority Leader John Thune called him a “proven leader,” citing his work as U.S. Attorney prosecuting terrorists and helping indict Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro; Republican Senator Tom Cotton also cited the Maduro case in backing him. Democrats worried he might politicize intelligence under pressure from Trump, and Warner said after the vote that he hoped Clayton would prove those concerns unfounded. Trump said Clayton was “outstanding in every way.”⁠[17][17][17][16][16][16][17][14]

On August 3, 2026, Clayton was sworn in as Director of National Intelligence by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in the Oval Office, formally succeeding Gabbard and ending Pulte’s roughly 40-day acting tenure; until then he had served as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.⁠[15][18][18][18][19]

In September 2026 Trump said he planned to create an “AI Force” and name an AI czar; David Sacks, previously the AI and crypto czar, had stepped down in March 2026 after reaching his time limit as a special government employee. On October 2 and 3, people familiar with the matter said Trump was expected to name Clayton White House AI czar to help develop the administration’s AI policies and regulations while he remained Director of National Intelligence, though it was unclear whether the role would include reviewing new models or setting safety standards; a White House official responded that personnel announcements would come directly from the president and that reporting until then was speculation.⁠[19][19][19][20][21][19][21][19]

On October 4 Trump announced on Truth Social that Clayton would lead the White House’s new “Super Intelligence Force,” coordinating the federal government’s engagement with consumers, public interest groups, religious organizations, critical infrastructure providers and super intelligence companies, making him the new White House AI czar. The task force’s vice chairs are Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Emil Michael, Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor and Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson; its members include Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, its outside advisors include David Sacks and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and it has 120 days to report on AI’s risks and opportunities and a federal plan. Clayton had called super intelligence a national security issue and opposed calls to pause AI development; he told The Wall Street Journal that “the risk of not being first is high.” Senator Mark Warner welcomed the administration’s attention to AI but criticized the new role as lacking clear authority and a coherent strategy.⁠[15][15][15][22][22][22][22][15][22][22]

Clayton’s honors include the University of Pennsylvania Law School’s Bergman Business Prize (1993), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman’s Award for Regulatory Excellence (2020) and the Vision of Hope Award from Boys Hope Girls Hope of New York (2024).⁠[1][1][1]