How Trump's US attorney pick can bring justice back to NYC — in 120 days or less
When President Trump named former SEC Chair Jay Clayton as US attorney for the Southern District of New York last month — the most consequential prosecutor's office outside Washington — Sen. Chuck Schumer immediately moved to block the appointment.
In withholding his 'blue slip,' the home-state senator's traditional veto power over federal nominees, Schumer proclaimed that Clayton is a threat to the rule of law, likely to use his office's powers as 'weapons to go after [Trump's] perceived enemies.'
Trump appointed Clayton anyway, on an interim basis — giving him 120 days to prove the skeptics wrong.
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That's not much in government time, and the clock is ticking: As of Friday, Clayton has just 97 days remaining.
But Trump has already set the agenda: Restore law and order, root out corruption and refocus the Justice Department on Americans' safety.
With these principles Clayton can transform SDNY into a national model for federal prosecutors — aggressive on violent crime, relentless toward cheats and unapologetic in defending the rule of law.
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Many look to Clayton's background and expect him to focus on white-collar financial crime.
But as a longtime New Yorker, Clayton has witnessed the city's surge in violent crime up close.
In New York City, felony assault charges against repeat offenders have skyrocketed — up 146.5% over six years, thanks to soft-on-crime Democratic policies at every level of government.
Major crime is up 30% since the pandemic. In East Harlem, a gang war led to 21 shootings in just six months. Violent gangs are back and growing in our boroughs.
To dismantle the gangs and cartels, Clayton's SDNY should form a dedicated gang and narcotics unit to leverage the full force of federal RICO statutes to prosecute gang leaders — not just their street-level enforcers.
With the Drug Enforcement Administration and Department of Homeland Security, SDNY can identify, disrupt and obliterate cartel supply chains before deadly drugs ever hit our streets.
Illegal guns should be a top priority.
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Despite New York's toughest-in-the-nation gun laws, firearms continue to pour into the city with deadly efficiency.
Between 2017 and 2023, 93% of guns recovered at NYC crime scenes were traced to out-of-state sources — three times the national average.
For quick results, Clayton should conduct monthly citywide gun sweeps modeled on the coordinated drug sweeps of the 1990s — then bring federal firearms trafficking charges under the Gun Control Act, seeking mandatory minimum sentences for those caught arming criminals.
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Treat smugglers and suppliers as what they are: accomplices to violence.
Above all, SDNY can work to eliminate the repugnant crime of human trafficking from New York City.
Last year, a teenager was kidnapped at gunpoint in Times Square and forced into prostitution.
In 2024 alone, city agencies identified 843 children as either trafficked or at immediate risk of trafficking.
The National Human Trafficking Hotline now reports more trafficking cases in New York than in all but three states.
More horrors than accounted for unfold in the shadows.
Traffickers must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law — no deals, no leniency.
Use every intelligence tool available to track down trafficking rings before another child vanishes into the shadows.
Safer streets mean less if we can be robbed by anyone just by going online.
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Last year, Americans lost over $12.5 billion to financial fraud — much of it orchestrated right here.
New York is the epicenter for Ponzi schemes, crypto scams, pump-and-dump fraud and sophisticated cyber cons like business email compromise attacks.
These aren't victimless crimes, but economic battery.
A dedicated task force inside SDNY can ensure that New York City is no safe haven for fraudsters.
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Find those who exploit the elderly and vulnerable and make them face the harshest possible consequences under federal law.
Ultimately Clayton's most enduring legacy won't be cases he brings, but the culture he builds.
SDNY has long served as just another prestigious line on résumés for the elite.
It's time to end the revolving door from Ivy League to clerkship to Big Law and back again.
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To meet this moment, we need prosecutors with grit, judgment and moral clarity in the courtroom.
Those who can say, 'I represent the United States of America' — and mean it.
Clayton may not win over every critic by summer's end, but his nomination should be about not politics, but the needs of the people of New York.
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And Schumer's procedural hardball might score political points in Washington, but it doesn't make us any safer.
This roadmap offers Clayton a path to restore justice at SDNY — and to earn enough public confidence to keep leading it.
Orin Snyder is a senior partner in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher who served as assistant US attorney at the SDNY.
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