Trump pick for Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor urges focus on national security, money laundering
By Chris Prentice and Echo Wang
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Jay Clayton, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, said the office is well-positioned to focus on national security and combating terrorism financing and money laundering.
Trump nominated Clayton, former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman, last week to be U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. The office is known for tackling financial crime and an unusual degree of independence from the rest of the Justice Department.
“New York City is the hub for capital flows and communications, which makes that oversight at policing and prosecutorial function particularly important,” Clayton said at an event at the Japan Society in New York on Wednesday.
“It’s basically continuing to establish that we play by the rules of the road here in the U.S.”
Trump has announced several top appointees in the weeks since he won the election. On Wall Street, investors are focused on his upcoming picks for Treasury secretary, and the heads of top financial regulators.
When asked about details about his potential plans for SDNY, Clayton told Reuters: “It’s an amazing office. The personnel, their qualifications, their experience.”
Clayton, a lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell who specializes in mergers and capital-raising, also said that the regulatory regime for mergers and acquisitions will likely become faster during next administration, with potential exceptions where transactions raise issues around trade and consumer protection.
“If you want your M&A deal to go through and you want the government to feel good about it, make sure you have the consumer on your side,” he said.
Clayton also spoke about cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, which has been met with skepticism by some financiers.
“It doesn’t surprise me that people got it wrong,” he said. “Now it’s providing a function that we really didn’t have before, which is a fairly frictionless lubricant between economies.”
Trump has vowed to make the U.S. “the crypto capital of the planet”. In September, Trump and his sons announced a new crypto business, World Liberty Financial. Crypto investors have welcomed the shift in tone after several years of heightened regulatory scrutiny.
(Reporting by Chris Prentice and Echo Wang; Editing by Lananh Nguyen and Peter Graff)