Dem
47
GOP
53
The Southern District of New York (SDNY) is the most powerful and prestigious federal prosecutor's office in the country, outside of Washington, DC. It rides herd on Wall Street and thousands of other businesses in New York. The SDNY has always prided itself on its independence.
As soon as the Senate confirms him, Jay Clayton will run the SDNY office as U.S. attorney there. The big unknown here is whether Clayton will continue the SDNY's history of being independent or will he become Donald Trump's tool to prosecute his enemies in New York. In keeping with Trump's tradition of appointing people with no experience whatsoever for the job they are expected to do, Clayton has never been a prosecutor anywhere.
Clayton currently works at Sullivan & Cromwell, a white-shoe law firm that has attracted a lot of controversy lately for agreeing to represent Trump in various cases—much to the horror of the lawyers there and lawyers at other top firms. He has refused to comment about the case in which the then-acting head of SDNY, Danielle Sassoon, resigned rather than agree to a corrupt deal temporarily dropping the charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams if he cooperated with Trump in rounding up immigrants to deport. There have been rumors that Clayton advised Sassoon to sign off on the corrupt deal. One former supervisor at the office (who requested anonymity) said: "There's a sense that the new world order means it is politics and payback that governs decision-making and that the notion of being on guard against interference is a punchline."
On the other hand, Clayton has some very un-Trumpy items on his CV. He has been a big supporter of DEI in the past, especially when he ran the SEC. Also at the SEC, he protected retail investors against corporate predators. Clayton is also close friends with former Manhattan D.A. Cyrus Vance, who oversaw multiple criminal investigations into Trump before he retired and Alvin Bragg took over as D.A. So how Clayton will run the office remains a mystery. (V)