New Delhi, July 29 -- WASHINGTON - The Senate confirmed Jay Clayton as Director of National Intelligence on Monday by a 51-47 party-line vote, handing the Trump administration control over the nation's seventeen-agency intelligence apparatus and completing a confirmation process that began when the administration's first choice for the job helped sink a marquee spy law.

the Director of National Intelligence now serves a president whose loyalty requirements Clayton demonstrated publicly at his own confirmation hearing.

Clayton comes to the DNI post by a circuitous route. He served as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump's first term, then agreed to serve as the US attorney for the Southern District of New York ...