(Reuters) -President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Jay Clayton, a former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, will serve as interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York while the administration pursues Senate confirmation for him to serve in the role full-time.
Clayton, a lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell who specializes in mergers and capital raising, is a political independent who developed a reputation while at the SEC during Trump’s first term for trying to forge consensus with the agency’s Democratic commissioners.
“The Southern District needs strong leadership NOW, and I thank Jay for taking on this role while we continue to pursue his Senate confirmation,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Clayton did not immediately respond to an email sent to his law firm address.
The Southern District of New York declined to comment.
Trump nominated Clayton to become Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor in November, but he has yet to be confirmed by the Senate.
Earlier on Wednesday, Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he would move to block Clayton’s nomination and that of Joseph Nacella Jr., Trump’s nominee for another key prosecutor role, the Eastern District of New York.
Schumer, who represents New York, was invoking a Senate tradition that allows senators to block some of the president’s judicial nominees in their states.
“I will not let the Senate move forward on President Trump’s nominees for US Attorney for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York,” Schumer wrote on X.
(Reporting by Ryan Patrick Jones; Editing by Jamie Freed)
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