President-elect Donald Trump’s choice of former SEC boss Jay Clayton to lead an office of prosecutors with a history of pursuing financial crimes is notable for its complete lack of controversy — especially on Wall Street.
The announcement that Clayton would serve as US Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) came amid a string of other Trump posts that attracted considerably more attention for their breaking of norms, including Matt Gaetz as attorney general and Pete Hegseth as Defense Department secretary.
Clayton, on the other hand, is a “well-respected, known entity,” said white collar criminal defense attorney Michael Weinstein.
After he ran the Securities and Exchange Commission from 2017 to 2020, Clayton returned to the New York white-shoe law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, where he currently advises on financial regulations and government investigations.
He also serves on the board of the giant private equity firm Apollo Global Management. (Disclosure: Yahoo Finance is owned by Apollo Global Management).
“Trump didn’t put in his own political guy, at least,” said Weinstein, who noted that Clayton’s experience at the SEC and as a litigation attorney should help streamline the financial cases that make up the bread and butter of SDNY’s work.
Not that Clayton doesn’t have some work to do if he gets confirmed by the US Senate to the post. He lacks criminal prosecution experience, which to Weinstein creates “a real blind spot” for the jurisdiction that will need to be overcome with help from experienced deputies.
And he is also not free from all political controversy surrounding moves made by Trump in the past.
He landed in the spotlight during Trump’s first term in office in the summer of 2020 when he was first floated for the SDNY post during a White House shakeup.
In June that year, Trump’s US Attorney General Bill Barr said in a letter to Trump-appointed SDNY chief Geoffrey Berman that he wanted Berman to resign, so that he could be replaced by Clayton. Bernman refused and Trump made a controversial move, firing Berman.
At the time, Berman had already prosecuted defendants with ties to Trump, including associates of Trump’s lawyer Rudy Guiliani, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, who were convicted on campaign finance contribution violations.
Clayton told lawmakers in public testimony that summer that he was “fully committed” to his work at the SEC and ultimately didn’t take the position.
His political skills could be tested again if confirmed for the SDNY post. Trump, who was convicted of 34 felonies this year in a New York State Supreme Court case, has vowed retribution on those who prosecuted him. The case was prosecuted by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg.
