President-elect Donald Trump’s choice of Jay Clayton as the lead federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York provided an early answer to a question that’s simmering in the city’s political and legal circles: Would Trump put a political firebrand in charge of the famously independent Manhattan office that’s prosecuting Mayor Eric Adams?
The early consensus appears to be no.
Trump has expressed his sympathy for Adams amid the prosecution — motivated by his own political grudges — and he does plan to oust U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, the federal prosecutor who indicted Adams on federal corruption and bribery charges. But while Clayton, a former Securities and Exchange Commission chair, has no experience in criminal law, several legal experts told Gothamist they did not expect his decisions to be shaped by political interests.
“He has competence, ability, and has shown a sense of balance in the past,” said John Coffee Jr., a Columbia Law School professor who focuses on securities law. “This is not like a Matt Gaetz or Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who are well outside the mainstream,” he added, referring to two other recent Trump picks who have drawn widespread criticism.
Like the other appointees, Clayton would have to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate after Trump’s inauguration.
By replacing Williams, who won convictions in several high-profile cases including those against cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried and U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, Clayton would take over one of the most powerful federal prosecutors’ offices in the country. Trump’s pick to lead the office was watched especially closely in light of the former president’s promise to exact revenge against his enemies, including prosecutors like Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Both have brought charges against Trump and won.
But several veteran New York City lawyers said Clayton doesn’t fit the bill of someone willing to carry out political vendettas or show leniency for those in Trump’s favor. Adams, who has been accused of accepting bribes and illegal campaign donations from Turkish officials, has pleaded not guilty with a trial set for April.
“That’s just not who [Clayton] is,” Joshua Naftalis, a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District, said. He described Clayton as an “exceptional” choice and spoke positively of his tenure at the SEC under the first Trump administration.
“He showed that he’s independent and respects the position to which he’s appointed,” he said.
Daniel Richman, another former federal prosecutor who now teaches at Columbia Law School, agreed. He called Clayton “solid” and said he would ensure that the evidence in the mayor’s case would be “considered, and not dismissed in service of politics or personal pique.”
But John Kaehny, executive director of the good government group Reinvent Albany, was more skeptical of whether Clayton would stand up to potential pressure from the White House. He pointed to the experience of Geoffrey Berman, whom Trump appointed to lead the Southern District but later fired. Berman wrote a book detailing the ways that Justice Department officials at the time urged him to investigate Trump’s opponents.
“I think there’s an understanding between Trump and Clayton that on certain matters of politics, the White House is going to call the shots. Otherwise he wouldn’t have gotten selected,” Kaehny said.
In a statement to the New York Times, Berman said, “Jay is an exceptional lawyer and will be an excellent United States attorney.”
Not many of New York’s top elected officials have yet made their views on Clayton publicly known.
But Rep. Ritchie Torres, who serves on the House Financial Services committee, called Clayton “a straight shooter, an honest broker and a rare sage in a hyper-partisan age.”
“America will be fortunate to have him back in public service,” he said in a post on X,
Angelo Roefaro, a spokesman for Democrat Sen. Chuck Schumer, the outgoing majority leader, declined to comment on Clayton’s appointment.
On Friday, Adams said he had no comment on Clayton when asked by a reporter whether he had a reaction to his nomination.
Alex Spiro, one of the mayor’s defense lawyers, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
During a morning interview on the ABC talk show “The View,” Adams was asked about whether his legal problems explained why he had seemingly “embraced” the president-elect of late. Adams has been reluctant to criticize Trump and some of his policies, raising questions about whether he is hoping to win a pardon or have the charges dropped.
The mayor said he had done nothing wrong but declined to comment.
“I think nothing is more challenging than not being able to defend yourself in public,” Adams said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
