Trump kills plan to quickly confirm new intelligence chief

Source: Politico

President Donald Trump upended plans to quickly confirm a new director of national intelligence, announcing in an early morning post Wednesday that he did not want a scheduled hearing for Jay Clayton later in the day to move forward.

The move paves the way for close political ally Bill Pulte to move into the acting DNI role Friday, something members of both parties had been hoping to forestall by quickly confirming Clayton this week. It also throws a revival of a key surveillance power known as Section 702 in further doubt.

In the Truth Social post published just before 4 a.m., Trump claimed "Republicans fell into a trap" by rushing to confirm Clayton, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, and block Pulte — allowing a renewal of the spy law to move forward.

Addressing reporters later in France, where he is attending the annual G7 summit, Trump criticized Congress for "doing a rush act" and said he was willing to leave Pulte in place as acting director "as long as it takes to get everybody else approved."



Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/trump-kills-plan-to-quickly-confirm-new-intelligence-chief-110307899.html