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Bill Pulte will step down on Monday as Jay Clayton assumes charge after Senate confirmation. The handover closes a brief, contentious tenure shaped by election-related document releases and political scrutiny.
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Washington,UPDATED: Aug 2, 2026 03:42 IST
Bill Pulte’s two-month stint as acting director of national intelligence will formally end on Monday, when Jay Clayton takes charge of the role after his confirmation by the Senate this week.
Pulte said in a social media post on Saturday that he had discussed the handover with President Donald Trump and Clayton. Trump had chosen Pulte as interim director after former director Tulsi Gabbard resigned, but the appointment drew criticism from Republican lawmakers who said the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency did not have the national security background for the post.
Clayton, a former US attorney for the Southern District of New York and a former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, was confirmed along party lines on Tuesday. The Republican-led Senate had hoped to confirm him in June, but Trump delayed his hearing.
During Pulte’s brief tenure, Trump delivered a speech from the White House in which he repeated his false claims about the 2020 election, which he lost, and released classified documents that he said were relevant to his arguments. Before the Senate vote on Clayton, Pulte also released intelligence community documents from 2020 that described China’s capacity to interfere in the American political process and vulnerabilities in the election system.
Clayton had stressed his government and national security experience in an effort to reassure senators from both parties. However, he lost bipartisan support for his nomination after a contentious hearing in which he repeatedly refused to say that former President Joe Biden won the 2020 election. The material released by Pulte was largely already known, but its disclosure formed part of the wider Trump administration effort to raise concerns about the integrity of US elections.
The White House has not yet announced when Clayton will be sworn in, as Pulte prepares to leave the post after a brief and closely watched tenure.
With PTI Inputs
- Ends
Published By:
India Today Web Desk
Published On:
Aug 2, 2026 03:42 IST
