President Donald Trump said he intends to appoint James McDonald as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, replacing Jay Clayton after Clayton was nominated to serve as director of national intelligence.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
President Donald Trump said Saturday that he plans to appoint James McDonald as the next U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, placing a former federal prosecutor and commodities enforcement official in one of the Justice Department’s most influential offices.
McDonald would succeed Jay Clayton, whom Trump nominated Thursday to serve as director of national intelligence. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said the Senate will “move quickly” to consider Clayton’s nomination.
The Southern District of New York, based in Manhattan, is the Justice Department’s busiest prosecutorial office and handles a broad range of high-profile cases, including terrorism, espionage, securities fraud, public corruption and major financial crimes.
McDonald previously served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, where his work included white-collar criminal cases, international narcotics trafficking and violent crime. During Trump’s first term, he later served as enforcement chief at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
He is currently a senior partner at Sullivan & Cromwell, where he worked beginning in 2021 alongside Clayton before Clayton moved to the Southern District of New York.
“I am confident that Jamie will deliver strong results for our Country as the next United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, as he has the respect of, and will work fantastically with, our Law Enforcement Patriots, the Legal Community, and the Judicial Bench,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Good luck Jamie. I have no doubt about your future greatness!”
McDonald also represented Trump personally in 2025 while at Sullivan & Cromwell, working on the president’s formal appeal of a jury’s felony conviction for falsifying business records in New York. Trump received an unconditional discharge in January 2025 before his second inauguration. His appeal of the conviction record remains ongoing, and Trump has described the trial as “a political witch hunt.”
Clayton’s expected departure from the Manhattan prosecutor’s office comes after a 14-month tenure that included the unsealing of thousands of pages of court records from the prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Those records were made public as part of the Justice Department’s release of documents related to Epstein, the late sex offender, and Maxwell, his longtime confidant.
Clayton also oversaw the prosecution of former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, on drug trafficking charges.
Trump’s selection of McDonald is part of a broader reshuffling of senior law enforcement and intelligence posts. On June 19, Trump named Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte to serve in an acting capacity after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced she would resign to care for her husband, who has been diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer. Gabbard is expected to step down June 30.
Trump also directed Pulte to reduce the size of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees 18 intelligence agencies.
“I’d like to see it smaller. I think there are a lot of people in there that shouldn’t be there,” Trump told The Wall Street Journal in an article published June 5.
Trump said he wanted the downsizing completed before a permanent director takes office.
“You’re less shackled,” Trump said. “It sort of gives you more power, you know, for a somewhat limited period of time.”
Democrats opposed Pulte’s appointment, citing his lack of intelligence or national security experience, and said they would refuse to renew foreign intelligence powers in Congress.
Trump named Clayton as his permanent nominee for director of national intelligence on June 11.
“Few people anywhere in the Legal Community are respected at the level of Jay,” Trump wrote. “I encourage the United States Senate to confirm Jay as soon as possible.”
If McDonald takes over the Southern District of New York, he would inherit one of the federal government’s most closely watched prosecutorial offices at a time when Trump is moving to fill key legal and intelligence positions across his administration.
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