Trump Names Former SEC Chair Jay Clayton to DOJ Office, the Same Office That Prosecuted SBF

President-elect Donald Trump said former Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Jay Clayton would be his U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, heading up the state's Department of Justice branch.

Clayton, who has advised a number of crypto firms since leaving the SEC in December 2020, oversaw the production of the SEC's DAO Report, which claimed jurisdiction over a broad swath of the crypto industry, and famously once said he believed most initial coin offerings were securities, a view later echoed by his successor, current SEC Chair Gary Gensler.

"[Clayton] is a highly respected business leader, counsel and public servant," Trump said.

One of Clayton's final actions at the SEC was to sign off on its lawsuit against Ripple Labs. The case is currently winding its way through the federal appellate court system, after a judge ruled last year that the company had not violated federal securities laws in making XRP available to retail traders through exchanges. He's currently a senior policy advisor at the law firm Sullivan and Cromwell, alongside his various advisory roles.

He did not immediately return a request for comment.

Under current U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, the SDNY branch of the DOJ brought prosecutions against a number of people tied to financial and corporate malfeasance, including last year's high-profile trial against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, which resulted in his conviction and 25-year-sentence on seven different fraud and conspiracy charges.

Trump previously tried to nominate Clayton to the office, to replace then-U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman.

In the week since his reelection, the former and now future president has named a number of individuals he intends to nominate to cabinet and other positions, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the Department of Health and Human Services, Representative Matt Gaetz to be the U.S. Attorney General, Senator Marco Rubio to be Secretary of State and former Representative Tulsi Gabbard to be the Director of National Intelligence.

He's also named Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to be the co-heads of a Department of Government Efficiency, though Congress would need to approve of that entity's creation as an actual department, as opposed to some sort of advisory committee.