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President Trump has announced that he will nominate his Manhattan US attorney, Jay Clayton, to lead the intelligence community.

Getting into it: In a statement on Truth Social, Trump praised Clayton (a former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman and prosecutor overseeing the case against Nicolas Maduro) as widely respected in the legal community and urged the Senate to confirm him quickly. The move was an effort to quell a bipartisan revolt over his pick of Bill Pulte, a top housing official with no intelligence background, to serve as acting director after Tulsi Gabbard’s departure. Trump said Pulte will still take the acting role on June 19, telling reporters, “He’s only there for a little while.”

The fight over Pulte had derailed the renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a powerful surveillance authority set to expire at midnight Friday. Democrats had refused to back a short-term extension hours earlier, sinking it on a 198-218 vote over the Pulte standoff. The House then left town until June 23, all but guaranteeing the lapse.

Democrats said they would not budge unless the White House promised to keep Pulte out of the acting role, and they questioned Trump’s timing. Senator Mark Warner, who said he had “great respect for Jay Clayton,” asked why the president waited until after the House had gone home and called Pulte “a national security threat,” while Minority Leader Chuck Schumer insisted Pulte “has to go.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who got no warning of the pick, praised Clayton as a “qualified professional” and vowed to move quickly, noting he had been Senate-confirmed before.

This all comes as Section 702 of FISA is set to expire tonight.