Lankford Questions DNI Nominee Jay Clayton on Iran Threats, Terror Financing, and ODNI Reform

WASHINGTON, DC - US Senator James Lankford (R-OK), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, today questioned Jay Clayton, President Trump's nominee for Director of National Intelligence, on the growing terror threat from Iran and how his experience prosecuting terrorists, spies, and money launderers in the Southern District of New York prepares him to lead the intelligence community.

You can watch Lankford's full remarks at the hearing HERE. You can download it HERE.

Excerpts:

On Serving Policymakers with Clear Intelligence:

Lankford: "You have served the nation in multiple different roles, before and leading SEC, and did a very good job there, in the Southern District of New York in the US Attorney's office. You've got a very unique experience and background walking in on intelligence. You've handled money laundering, drug kingpins. You've handled international terrorists, foreign terrorist organizations, counterespionage cases. You've handled a lot of things as a prosecutor in this. My question to you is, how does that experience, in knowing what is needed to actually prosecute individuals, affect how you approach this task in helping the intelligence community trying to be able to gather information?"

Clayton: "[…] The intelligence community is about providing information and analysis, not setting policy or making decisions. I look forward to playing that role as ODNI. I think that my experience as a consumer of that type of information will help me provide the information in the way that is best for the consumers I serve. […] The women and men of the intelligence community are incredible. I look forward to working with them, learning from them, and figuring out how to provide that best possible intelligence product."

On Streamlining the Office of the Director of National Intelligence:

Lankford: "ODNI started out as a very small entity after the 9/11 attacks, as you know well. It has grown to a multi-thousand-person organization. […] We have a lot of people that are detailed from a lot of our intelligence agencies to the Director of National Intelligence office. […] You've led a lot of large organizations. Tell me, process wise, how you walk in to be able to look at, are we right size, right task? Do we have people here that need to actually be there? How do you make those decisions?"

Clayton: "[…] What is our mission? The safety and security of the American people. How do we deal with that every day? We provide decision makers with the best possible intelligence product. What is the structure over the intelligence community with the role that we have, which is supposed to be oversight and integration, not operations? What is the structure that best serves that? That's how I intend to look at it. […] The analogy that is in my mind is a board of directors that oversees a number of subsidiaries. In most cases, that board of directors is fairly lean and relies on reporting from the subsidiaries. […] One thing you don't want to do as a member of a board of directors, whether you're in oversight or empowerment or both, is get into the day-to-day of management. You lose perspective."

On the Threat from Iran:

Lankford: "You have handled terrorism cases coming straight out of Iran and threats that have come to us. For 47 years, the United States and American citizens all around the world have faced terrorism threats from Iran and the growth of the proxy terror organizations. What can you tell us at this point, based on your experience in the Southern District of New York and your prosecution side of things, and then also some of the work that you had done in the past just dealing with money laundering and the movement of money, the most effective way to be able to deal with the threats that we're facing right now from Iran?"

Clayton: "The threat's real. It's not hypothetical. Look, all you need to do is look at the people who we have arrested in the last year and what they have done. They intend to do our citizens harm. They are well funded, and they are well funded through channels that we need to do a better job of monitoring. Our traditional banking channels I think are fairly well monitored. There are new channels, I would say digital asset platforms, other channels where funding takes place that we need to do a better job on."

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