Trump said he was stopping Clayton’s nomination until Clayton’s current post as U.S. attorney was filled. The president has said he would appoint James McDonald, a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell and one of Trump’s personal lawyers, to lead the Southern District. McDonald’s nomination has not yet been advanced.
Clayton, a former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and a longtime Trump ally and golf partner, was set to take the first step toward a cabinet-level post last week before Trump intervened. Many lawmakers had welcomed Clayton’s selection over Bill Pulte, whom Trump had installed as acting director of national intelligence and who Democrats and some Republicans feared would politicize the role.
Clayton runs the Manhattan-based U.S. attorney’s office long considered a crown jewel of the Justice Department. When the Trump administration captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January, Clayton unveiled a new indictment accusing Maduro, his wife and four other defendants of a 25-year conspiracy involving joining with violent drug traffickers to distribute tons of cocaine to the U.S.
Tensions have long existed between the Southern District, which prides itself on independence, and Justice Department headquarters in Washington. Clayton has at times supported the views of his prosecutors over officials at headquarters, people familiar with the matter said. When Justice Department officials announced a policy for companies to report wrongdoing in exchange for not being prosecuted and said it superseded all U.S. attorney policies, Clayton continued to tout his own. “100% unequivocally fake news,” Clayton said of the idea his policy no longer applied.
Earlier this year, Clayton rebuffed a Justice Department request to launch an investigation related to writer E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuits against Trump, sparing his office from a political minefield, according to people familiar with the matter. U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros in Chicago is now overseeing a probe of Democratic billionaire Reid Hoffman’s financial support for Carroll’s legal efforts. Boutros has said Carroll herself is not under investigation.
Washington officials noticed that Clayton did not sign his name to an initial filing asking a judge to unseal grand-jury materials related to Jeffrey Epstein, though a Southern District spokesman said that was a timing issue and Clayton signed other Epstein filings. Clayton did take on the White House’s demand that he look into Epstein’s ties to powerful Democrats, but has not taken any publicly known investigative steps to advance that probe. He publicly endorsed Trump’s claims that California’s election system is vulnerable to corruption.
Clayton has made frequent appearances on CNBC, a practice that has irked some current and former prosecutors who view it as an audition for promotion. “On the integrity side, we are doing an absolutely terrible job, and the American people are right to question it,” he said on the network. A Southern District spokesman said deterrence is an important part of law enforcement and that live business television is an effective means to reach a broad audience.
Closer to home, Clayton has emphasized targeting quality-of-life crimes, including those related to guns and drug cartels, and has touted the office’s sex-trafficking prosecutions and charges against alleged drug dealers in Manhattan’s Washington Square Park. The office has opened 29 insider-trading investigations so far this year, up from 11 in the prior year, the spokesman said.
Clayton first met Trump in 2016 during consideration for the SEC role, which he led from 2017 to 2020. After Trump’s first term, Clayton returned to private practice and served as chairman of Apollo Global Management. His name was floated for attorney general and Treasury secretary, according to people familiar with the matter, but he did not get either job.
Hard feelings permeated the Southern District before Clayton’s arrival, when the Justice Department ordered the office to drop charges against former New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Months later, the department fired respected prosecutor Maurene Comey, the daughter of Trump critic James Comey, leaving prosecutors frustrated that Clayton did not prevent it. As he had in previous leadership roles, Clayton invited staffers to his home for dinner.
A Justice Department spokeswoman called Clayton an exceptional lawyer who led the office “with the utmost professionalism, particularly while handling cases critical to our country’s national security.” Steven Peikin, a Sullivan & Cromwell partner who worked with Clayton at the SEC, said Clayton’s management skills and emotional intelligence make him a strong fit to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. “He is the most effective leader I’ve ever worked for,” Peikin said.